High Court concludes hearings for Deputy Speaker Nazim

High Court has ended hearings today for the appeal of the Criminal Court ruling that there was no room for criminal prosecution of Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ahmed Nazim, accusing him of deceit in selling a large number of harbour lights to the former Ministry of Atolls.

Nazim was accused of proposing bids under the names of different companies, without their knowledge, for the purchase of 220 harbour lights called for in 2003 by the previous Ministry of Atolls. This was said to be carried out by the employees of a company named “Namira Engineering” of which Nazim was the Managing Director.

The Criminal Court ruling stated that the investigation statements show that the basis of the prosecution is founded on the actions of the employees of the company and that, while these parties are not prosecuted, but were accepted as witnesses to the case, and that the Managing Director Nazim cannot be prosecuted as an individual.

Assistant Public Proscutor Abdulla Raabiu told the court at today’s appeal hearing that the regulation of criminal prosecution states that the court has to obtain statements from all the witnesses presented by the State and that the Criminal Court had breached the regulation in not calling for statements by all such witnesses.

He said that the employees who worked in Namira Engineering had nothing to gain in the underhanded presentation of estimates. He also said that “no sane person would believe” that the action were not carried out under Nazim’s orders and noted that Namira Engineering had gained a total of MVR 1.4 in profits from the deal.

Answering the accusations by the State, Deputy Speaker Nazim said that it was apparent from the confession statements of the employees that the actions were carried out by the employees themselves. So being, he said, it is unjustified that the employees be heard as witnesses against him.

Nazim said that him being a government employee at the time period of the dealings, he had delegated management of the company to one Ahmed Asheeth during the time of the dealings.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Abdulla Raabiu referred to a precedent by the Supreme Court and said that the validity of the confession by a witness can only be questioned if they had committed a heinous crime that could question their integrity or if the witness is a repeat offender of petty crimes. He said that the witnesses have presented by the prosecution has never before been convicted of criminal offence.

Concluding today’s hearing, Chair of the High Court bench of judges that presided over the case, Judge Ali Sameer said that a sentence will be announced during the next hearing, if the case does not need any further clarification.

Nazim is also being prosecuted for two other cases, one involving the use of Namira employees to propose estimates using fake names of non-existing companies and winning the bids for 15,000 national flags and another case involves the purchase of sound systems for mosques in the islands, which was also supposedly carried out underhandedly.

Criminal Court has passed the same sentence for both cases, stating that the basis of the prosecution is founded on the actions of the employees of the company and that Nazim cannot be prosecuted based on witness statements provided by these employees who committed the deeds.