Maldives ex-VP Ahmed Adeeb sentenced to 20 years for corruption
A court in the Maldives has sentenced former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb to 20 years in prison for corruption charges related to leasing tropical islands for hotel development.
The 38-year-old, who pleaded guilty last month under a plea
bargain, was also fined $129,892 on Monday.
The Maldives Criminal Court charged Adeeb with embezzlement,
money laundering and misuse of government authority among other offences,
according to an order of Judge Hassan Saeed.
According to an asset recovery commission formed by the current
government, the islands in the popular holiday destination were sold
below-market prices. As a result, the government lost nearly $259m.
In his statement to the court, Adeeb said he was ready to
cooperate to recover the missing money.
Last year, Maldivian police arrested Adeeb after he fled the
Indian Ocean archipelago and sought asylum in India.
Adeeb, who became the Maldives’ youngest vice president in
July 2015 at 33 years of age, suffered a spectacular fall from grace just
months later following a mysterious blast on then-President Abdulla Yameen’s
speedboat.
Yameen, who lost a 2018 presidential election and in 2019
was sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering, escaped the
explosion unharmed but his wife and two aides were injured.
Authorities in the Maldives swiftly moved to arrest Adeeb,
and brought him to trial, first on charges of corruption relating to the theft
of nearly $80m from state coffers from the lease of islands for tourism, and
later on accusations of plotting to kill Yameen.
The following year, Adeeb was sentenced to a total of 33
years in jail in trials rights groups called unfair.
In May last year, an appeals court overturned the sentences
against Adeeb and ordered retrials, citing political interference in the convictions.
Prosecutors appealed the ruling in the money-laundering case, and the Supreme
Court seized Adeeb’s passport pending a new decision.
He was released from house imprisonment in July 2019.
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