Ex-legal minister served with indictment papers

Former Legal Affairs Minister of the President's Office, Aishath Azima Shakoor have been handed her indictment papers as her trial awaits.

Azima is being charged with being an accomplice to money laundering and providing false information to a government authority.

According to the current criminal procedural laws, indictment papers have to be handed to the person being charged of a crime within five days from the date of officially being charged. Azima was charged on Sunday.

The preliminary hearings for the case usually begins shortly after the indictment papers are handed over. However, the Criminal Court has not revealed the date scheduled for the hearing thus far.

The police suspect Azima Shakoor of being an accessory in the money laundering case implicating former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayyoom. Azima was previously former president's attorney.

Azima is also being charged with providing false information during an official investigation conducted by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

While two charges have been made against Azima, Criminal Court on Monday began the trial of former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom who is facing charges of money laundering linked to the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the island nation.

The prosecution asked the court to take Yameen into custody to deny him the chance to influence the evidence against him, which was granted by the court. The former resident is now being held in Maafushi remand jail until the end of his trial.

The much awaited report into the Maldives Media and PR Corporation (MMPRC) scandal, had revealed that over USD79 million had been embezzled through the state tourism promotion company.

The funds received by MMPRC were distributed through a private company called SOF Private Limited with strong links to the now jailed former vice president Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor.

Shortly after the scandal was uncovered, USD1 million was deposited by SOF to Yameen's personal account at the Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB).

Yameen has continued to insist that the funds in his account was for his failed presidential campaign last year.

President Yameen further said that he had reached an agreement with the country's graft watchdog on how to transfer the funds, and the funds were deposited accordingly in June last year.