Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Governor Dr. Azeema Adam and Bank of Maldives CEO Andrew Healy has been submitted as witnesses for the defense on the case filed against Hamid Ismail, uncle of former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb and prominent businessman.
Misappropriation charges were filed against Hamid over the deposit of lease payments to a company under his name. The lease payments were made for the lease of a resort from MMPRC. The same charges had been filed against former VP Adeeb and former Managing Director of MMPRC Abdullah Ziyath.
Both the state and defense lawyers had presented witnesses in today's hearings. The state had presented 24 pieces of evidence; two were anonymous witnesses, MMPRC, Millennium Capital and Tourism Ministry documents, cheques, slips and banks statements from MMPRC and Hamid. Additionally, MMPRC articles of association, statements from Millennium employees including Amjad Ismail, Ahmed Nizam, Shahid Hussain and Ziyath had been submitted as evidence.
Articles of Association and Memorandum of Association of MMPRC, Millennium Capital and Montillion International and shareholder information of these companies had been submitted as evidence from the defense.
Both MMA Governor and BML CEO had been submitted as witnesses to ascertain that the misappropriated funds were deposited to the Millennium Capital accounts due to negligence from the Bank. Hamid's lawyer, Husnu Suood said the funds could not have been deposited to the accounts if the bank had been vigilant on the case.
Ahmed Nizam, Amjad Ismail, Riffath, Hussain Shareef and Ahmed Shinan, employees of Millennium, had been submitted as witnesses for Hamid, in addition to documents and bank statements.
Ziyath had submitted MMPRC special audit report, bank statements and transactions between the body and the BML as evidence. The agreement between MMPRC and Kuredhu Holidays and cheques were also submitted as evidence.
Ziyath's lawyer, in today's hearing had argued that the statement given by Ziyath during his detention cannot be admissible in Court as it was taken under duress. He argued that Police had said that Ziyath will be transferred to his residence after giving the statement.
In the next hearing, the statements of all the witnesses will be taken. The hearing was initially scheduled for the 28th of this month. However, the defense had argued that this was not sufficient time to prepare the defense. The Court had announced that a hearing will be held on a later date.
