Supreme Court judge Abdulla Didi has denied allegations that he was bribed to jail former president Mohamed Nasheed in 2015.
The former president Nasheed who is a current member of the Judicial Service Commission as the the Speaker of the parliament earlier this week submitted a complaint at JSC claiming that Supreme Court Justice Abdulla Didi accepted a bribe of USD 1 million to jail Nasheed.
In a statement released by Didi following the reports of Nasheed’s move to pursue the allegations, Didi criticized local medias for publishing the news and said that his reputation as well as that of his family had been tarnished due to the circulation of false rumors concerning him. Noting that it his constitutional right to live freely without being defamed, Didi further said in his statement that he should be suspected of a criminal offence only if there was substantial evidence pointing against him.
While details of funds deposited into one’s account’s are available if the government requires the information, publishing the news of Nasheed’s allegations without allowing Didi a chance to respond to Nasheed’s claims was irresponsible on the media’s part, Didi said.
He further assured that no funds in any of his accounts or those directly related to him were obtained illegally.
Judge Abdulla Didi was presiding over the bench when the Criminal court sentenced Nasheed to 13 years in jail on terrorism charges. Not long after, he was transferred as a High Court judge.
While Abdulla Didi was the Chief Judge of the High Court, he was appointed as a Supreme Court judge after the top court issued the controversial February 1 order.
It has been reported that the bribe was deposited to a Malaysian bank account under Abdulla Didi’s wife’s name. However, the source of the funds is unknown.
The case was previously submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), however, the investigation could not be pursued due to several factors.
The sentence jailing Nasheed was later overturned by the Supreme Court during November 2018.
