The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a five-year prison term on former President Abdulla Yameen for his alleged involvement in a money laundering case through Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation (MMPRC).

Yameen was found guilty of money laundering by the Criminal Court, where he was sentenced to a five-year prison term along with a USD 5 million fine. He first appealed the conviction with the High Court, which sided against him and ruled to uphold the original sentence back in January. He then appealed the conviction with the Supreme Court, which accepted the appeal on April 16th.

The last hearing of the trial was held on October 18th, with today's hearing set to deliver the verdict. During the appeal proceedings, the defense had presented new evidence to prove their innocence. However, the court had refused to count any of the new evidence towards their verdict.

The Supreme Court verdict was based on the evidence that was submitted to both the Criminal Court and the High Court.

Overturning the conviction, Justice Mahaz stated that the defense had presented seven points before the appeal proceedings moved onto hearings.

The Justice noted that even though the defense had claimed tha the trial proceedings did not allow equal opportunities for the defense to counter the prosecution, there were no substantial evidence submitted by the defense to prove this. Hence, the Justice noted that there were no grounds to consider that the trial proceedings did not allow equal opportunities.

While many of the points on appeal presented by Yameen were rejected, the court found some of the key points held merit, including the discrepancy in the number on the cheque used to deposit the money to Yameen’s account.

The court reached its verdict with the unanimous consensus of all three justices.