Former President, Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, has been taken into Police custody and transferred to Maafushi prison just moments ago. The Criminal Court had ordered the detention of President Yameen until court trial against the former President on charges of money laundering at MMPRC is concluded.

The Prosecutor General’s office has asked the Criminal Court to issue an arrest for the former President. Charges have been raised against President Yameen on money laundering and trasnferring funds to his bank account with finances at Maldives Marketing and Public relations Corporation (MMPRC) during his administration.

Presudent Yameen had been summoned to attend court by 1:30 pm today. He had arrived at court by 1:24 pm.

A two-hour session had been carried out at Criminal Court today to deliberate on the detention of President Yameen. Chief Judge of Criminal Court, Ahmed Halim, then ordered President Yameen’s detention in the Remand Prison.

State lawyers had accused President Yameen of influencing witnesses in the case of corruption against MMPRC during today’s deliberations. These are also the laqyers that had called for Predident Yameen’s detention for the remainder of the court trial.

The laywers had said that President Yameen had offered monetary bribes to witnesses and reiterated that there are documents to show that he had tried to alter witness testimony.

Following his arrest, President Yameen’s lawyers have now decided to proposed a case at court to dismiss the current order for detention.

The Prosecutor General’s office had submitted a proposal for the arrest of President Yameen on charges of money laundering to Criminal Court on 13 February 2019.