Former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayyoom has denied claims made by his former friend and witness against him in the V. Aarah money laundering case, former Deputy Parliament Speaker Ahmed Nazim.
Nazim testified against Yameen on Tuesday, stating that the MMPRC scandal was created to pay off the money loans taken by former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb at the behest of Yameen, to fund Yameen's 2013 presidential campaign.
Nazim disclosed that after President Yameen was elected, Adeeb first took money from Maldives Ports Limited (MPL) to pay off the debts. He said Adeeb "bullied" MPL board members to obtain local currency equivalent to USD 5 million, which was then deposited into the account of the businessman who gave the loan. Adeeb took the money to pay back the amount in dollars, he added.
When Nazim learned that Adeeb had withdrawn money from MPL, he went to Yameen at the President’s Office with documents and shared the information, he said. Nazim said he was told by Yameen that he received all the money taken by Adeeb, but he did not receive the money allegedly taken from MPL. He said he shared the information with the Auditor General and the Auditor General took action on the matter and even issued a report.
Denying Nazim's allegations at a press conference held on Thursday night, Yameen said Nazim came to him that day seeking the position of Parliament Speaker. At that time, a capable member was already appointed as the Speaker of Parliament, and he had earlier told Nazim that he would be given the Parliamentary Group leadership, he said.
Yameen also noted that there were contradictions in Nazim's testimony. In that regard, when questioned by the prosecution, Nazim had mentioned that Adeeb brought to Yameen's residence a black bag allegedly containing MVR 15 million. However, when later questioned by the defense, Nazim said that he had heard Adeeb saying, in the presence of other senior politicians, that he had given Yameen MVR 15 million when Yameen mentioned he did not have the funds to travel to a location.
Yameen said he did not take any funds from MPL to repay his campaign debt. He said the transaction was conducted under an agreement between the MMPRC and MPL to buy dollars for MPL.
Nazim testified that he did not know the amount of money spent on Yameen's 2013 campaign. Referring to the statement, Yameen questioned how a person who does not know anything about the campaign can know that there is a debt to be paid. He said there were no debts to be repaid for the expenses incurred during the campaign, and there were funds remaining even at the end of the campaign.
"He attempted to sell a story to the public, fabricating that the MMPRC scam was a mean to repay the campaign debt. Humans speak everything that comes to their minds without any analysis. There is no evidence. He is not even related [ to this matter]. He was not involved in the campaign work or dealt with the funds or administrative work. He didn't raise money for the campaign. When you ask how much money was spent on the campaign, he could not even tell you the amount of money. So tell me. Einstein or a mathemetician, someone, please explain to me. How would he know if there was a debt?,' Yameen questioned.
Yameen said it had been eight years since the relationship between himself and Nazim was severed. Nazim turned on him when he denied the request to appoint him as Parliament Speaker, he said.
In the Criminal Court, Nazim said that Yameen was the mastermind behind the MMPRC graft. He said he no longer has ties with Yameen because he was a believer and would not allow him to be stabbed twice by the same bee.
