Police seek prosecution of Faris Maumoon

The police said in a tweet after midnight on Friday that the case was sent to the Prosecutor General’s office after completing an investigation requested by the anti-corruption watchdog into alleged failure to reimburse the state.

The details of the charges are unclear. According to local media, the case concerns expenses from the former presidential palace Theemuge that were flagged in an audit report in 2009. But Faris was not serving in any official capacity at the palace.

The charges come amid an intensified crackdown after Gayoom joined forces with the opposition to challenge President Abdulla Yameen’s parliamentary majority. Faris was summoned for questioning at the police headquarters five times ahead of the new opposition coalition’s failed bid to impeach the speaker of parliament on March 27.