High Court upholds acquittal of president’s brother on corruption charges
Abdulla Algeen was accused of embezzling US$177,460 of Japanese funding from the Department of Meteorology while he was its director, but the High Court ruled that the prosecution was unable to prove that the money in question was owed to the state.
12 Sep 2015, 9:00 AM
The High Court on Thursday upheld the criminal court’s acquittal of President Abdulla Yameen’s brother Abdulla Algeen on corruption charges in August 2012.
Algeen was accused of embezzling US$177,460 of Japanese funding from the Department of Meteorology, where he was the director under his half-brother former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s administration.
Algeen sent three separate invoices to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) between May 2006 and April 2007 on behalf of the department and demanded payment to his personal bank account.
But the criminal court ruled that the state could not prove that JAMSTEC owed the money in question to the government. The verdict was delivered more than three years after the trial began.
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