Criminal court chief judge resigns ahead of impeachment vote

Judge Ahmed Hailam resigned on Monday with parliament due to vote on removing him from the bench as recommended by the judicial watchdog.

Hours before he was due to deliver a verdict in former president Abdulla Yameen’s money laundering trial, the criminal court’s chief judge was suspended on November 25 for sharing a cartoon of the president and speaker of parliament paraded in chains. On the following day, the watchdog launched a separate probe into a financial transaction of US$12,995 with a former lawmaker.

The Judicial Service Commission recommended his dismissal to parliament on Sunday night over alleged violations of the code of conduct.

In his resignation letter, Hailam accused the watchdog of disregarding his defence, politicising the judiciary and contravening the constitution and the JSC law. In the name of judicial reform, the oversight body was “amassing all powers of the courthouse into the fist of a particular political group,” he wrote according to media reports.

Hailam was appointed to the bench in January last year.