The police are investigating moneylaundering allegations against former Chief Judge of the Criminal Court Ahmed Hailam.
Hailam has been asked to present himself to the police headquarters for questioning on Tuesday. In response to the summons, the former judge said such allegations do not threaten him.
The allegations were raised against Hailam over a MVR 200,000 transaction between himself and former Feydhoo MP Alhan Fahmy. While MVR 200,000 entered Hailam's account on May 19, 2019, central bank Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) alerted the police regarding the transaction on July 25, 2019. oOwever, the information was relayed to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) by the police last November.
Hailam was suspended from the Criminal Court after he shared a controversial Victory Day greeting to a social network group of Criminal Court's Recreation club, which depicted Victory Day hero, Martyr Hussain Adam dragging President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Parliament Speaker former president Mohamed Nasheed and those convicted for the November 3, 1988 terror attack by a chain locked around their necks.
Hailam had claimed he was not aware that the president and the speaker were illustrated in the cartoon. However, then the presiding judge over former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayyoom's money laundering trial, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) suspended Ahmed Hailam mere hours ahead of a hearing during which a verdict was set to be delivered in the trial.
JSC made the decision to pursue the judge's dismissal through the Parliament after concluding that Hailam did not possess the disciplinary conduct required of a judge. The Parliament's Judiciary Committee reviewed the recommendation, and concluded that the JSC had sought Hailam's dismissal correctly. Hailam's dismissal was being forwarded to the parliament floor for deliberation when Hailam resigned from the post.
