Adeeb let off the hook over MVR74 mn payment

Jailed former vice president Ahmed Adeeb does not have to pay MVR74 million (US$4.72 million) in compensation, after the finance ministry sent him a letter voiding the payment notice.

He had been asked to pay the sum over losses incurred in a hotel development deal.

The letter, signed by finance minister Ahmed Munavvar, said the original notice was annulled because the Anti-Corruption Commission was reviewing the case.

Adeeb was accused of failing to collect 50-year lease extension fees for the Nasandhuraa Palace Hotel when leaseholder rights were sold to NPH Investments while he was tourism minister, according to a letter sent to him earlier this year.

He was sentenced to 15 years for an alleged assassination attempt on President Abdulla Yameen. He was convicted of graft that same year and handed an eight-year term. He is serving a total of 33 years as he had already been handed a 10-year sentence for plotting a terror attack.

In January he was charged with bribing intelligence officials while he was in government.