16 July 2017, Male: Former Maldives Vice President Ahmed Adeeb has stated that former President Mohamed Nasheed’s 13-year jail term, handed down ostensibly for ‘terrorism’ in 2015, was “masterminded under direct Government scheming and influence.”
In a remarkable letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, sent by Adeeb on Sunday 16 July from Maafushi Jail, where he is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence, the former Vice President says he has evidence to prove President Nasheed’s innocence and is prepared to testify to that effect in court.
“I have before me evidence to prove that the judgement passed on Mr Nasheed was meted out under heavy manipulation conducted against the presiding judges and on the judiciary as a whole.
“Where the Supreme Court wishes to give me the opportunity to share this information I am ready to testify to demonstrate that I have adequate evidence to prove it in a court of law,” Adeeb says in his letter to the Chief Justice.
Adeeb goes onto state that the reason President Yameen’s government jailed President Nasheed was to “stop him leading a political campaign following Colonel Mohamed Nazim’s arrest, in Mr Nazim’s defence.”
Former Defence Minister Colonel Nazim was arrested on 10 February 2015. President Nasheed was arrested on 22 February 2015.
“I am party to this information because at that time I held the office of tourism minister and most government matters were conducted under my purview,” Adeeb adds in his letter.
In September 2015, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that President Nasheed’s detention was arbitrary, illegal under international law and called for his immediate release.
The UN Working Group stated that President Nasheed should be compensated for wrongful arrest and imprisonment and that all his political rights, including the right to stand for public office, should be immediately restored. The Yameen regime rejected the UN judgement out of hand.
In September 2006, Al Jazeera aired an explosive documentary, entitled Stealing Paradise, which exposed rampant bribery, corruption, money laundering and other serious crimes perpetrated by President Yameen’s regime.
The documentary includes secretly filmed footage in which a driver for then Vice President Adeeb overhears President Yameen calling Adeeb and asking for a change to be made to President Nasheed’s sentence. President Nasheed was sentenced later that day.
Commenting on Adeeb’s letter, Jared Genser, legal counsel to President Nasheed, said:
“The letter to the Supreme Court from former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb is as stunning as it is unsurprising.
“We already knew that the three judges in President Nasheed’s case were bribed to convict him. But Adeeb is now prepared to explain how the entire sham case against President Nasheed was fabricated and who was responsible.
“In light of these explosive revelations, which must be viewed as highly credible given Adeeb is also implicating himself in this wrongdoing, the Supreme Court must immediately interview him and then reverse President Nasheed’s conviction, exonerating him completely.”
ENDS