Former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Ghafoor has been sentenced to three months and 18 days in jail over his flee attempt.
Adeeb was charged with obstruction to law enforcement, to which he pleaded guilty during a hearing held last Tuesday.
During the hearing, Adeeb said he attempted to flee the country in order to seek foreign asylum as he was receiving death threats. While he pleaded guilty to the charges, he has given a statement to the police on which he admitted to his crime, he said in court. He apologized for his actions and assured that he would not repeat such an action in future.
During Thursday's sentencing hearing, the presiding judge questioned Adeeb on his admission of guilt during the preliminary hearing. Adeeb assured that he was not under duress when he pleaded guilty to the charge raised against him, and said the charges were based on true events.
The judge then allowed both the prosecution and the defense to discuss the sentence. In light of Adeeb's admission of guilt, the State proposed to consider the offence as a second degree felony instead of a first degree offence, and requested to lighten Adeeb's sentence to three months and 18 days instead of four months and 24 days as stipulated in the criminal procedural laws.
The former vice president request to take his health into consideration in sentencing. Adeeb suffers from a number of health issues including an eye disease named Glaucoma, and other medical complications including kidney issues.
While delivering the verdict, the presiding judge said there was no point of increasing Adeeb's sentence as Adeeb had pleaded guilty to the charges. Therefore, Adeeb was sentenced to three months and 18 days in jail after his offence was lightened to a second degree felony due to his admission of guilt.
After being acquitted of multiple charges against him, Adeeb last August attempted to flee the country in a tugboat to neighboring India disguised as a member of the crew. While he had a travel ban imposed on him as he remained a subject of investigation for alleged misappropriation of state funds, corruption and money laundering, he was discovered by Indian authorities and returned to Maldives.
Upon his return, the Supreme Court ordered to detain Adeeb under state custody until the end of his corruption trial over the leasing of Maabinhuraa island, as per the Prosecutor General's Office request to detain Adeeb as he remained a flight risk.
Adeeb recently testified against former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayyoom in his money laundering trial. In his testimony, Adeeb admitted to having carried out illegal activities on the orders of President Yameen. He has since been electronically tagged and transferred to home arrest.
Former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Ghafoor
