Supreme Court Justice Abdulla Didi has denied receiving a US1 million bribe and angrily lashed out at the “false, irresponsible and dirty” reports appearing in the local media.
On Sunday, parliamentary speaker and former president Mohamed Nasheed submitted a disciplinary complaint against the judge at the Judicial Service Commission, a ten-member oversight committee for the judiciary.
Nasheed filed the complaint through a letter to the judicial watchdog, parliament Secretary General Fathimath Niusha told the media on Sunday.
Local media reported that the judge is accused to taking a US$1 million bribe to sentence Nasheed to 13 years in jail in 2015.
According to reports, the money was transferred to a dollar account in Malaysia belonging to Didi’s wife. The source of the money is unknown.
In a press statement released on Monday, Didi denied the allegations and lashed out at the media for “irresponsible” journalism.
“I deny these false accusations in the newspapers, and assure [you] that there is no undeserved money in bank accounts belonging to me or people related to me,” he said.
“The news reports on June 2 that defamed my reputation is a very irresponsible act done without checking both sides of the story.
“It is a constitutional right to defend and answer [the] allegations. But this was an incredibly dirty act carried out contrary to human rights principles … for the purpose of ruining my reputation.”
Didi was promoted to the Supreme Court last June after two of the court’s judges were removed by former president Abdulla Yameen in February.
He was the chief judge of the Criminal Court and one of the judges on the bench who sentenced Nasheed four years ago.
The bribery allegations were also submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission, but they failed to make any headway in the investigation because the money was transferred to a Malaysian bank account, local media reported.
Meanwhile, former attorney general Husnu Suood urged the judge to step aside while the commission, which has the power to recommend a judge’s removal from office, looked into the allegations.
“While [the] JSC is looking into a serious allegation of corruption against a Supreme Court judge, he or she should not sit on the bench until such an allegation has been cleared by [the] JSC,” Suood tweeted on Monday.
