High Court has postponed the delivery of verdict on the appeal of Criminal Court's order to freeze former president Yameen Abdul Gayyoom's bank accounts.
The High Court was scheduled to deliver its verdict on Thursday morning, however, the hearing has been cancelled due to administrative reasons, the High Court informed on Thursday.
The hearings of the case are conducted behind closed-doors.
Only one hearing has been held to date on the appeal, while at the conclusion of the hearing, the High Court had stated that it was the final hearing on the case, and that the verdict would be issued next. As the hearing was not open to public, details regarding the hearing are unknown.
Criminal Court issued a court order on the request of Maldives Police Service (MPS) to freeze an account of the former president that contained over MVR 100 million. After freezing the account, President Yameen was summoned to the police headquarters for questioning. He is now under state-custody until the end of his money-laundering trail.
The former president's accounts were frozen as funds received for the 2018 presidential election campaign were deposited into an account under his name, and as USD one million related to the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Company (MMPRC) graft were in his account.
President Yameen's then attorney Azima Shakoor, who has now been implicated in his money laundering trial, had claimed that the accounts were frozen to serve a political purpose and had several legal issues. Azima had questioned why it was only President Yameen's accounts that were frozen, and said the action proves that the intent behind the move is obviously political.
