Court hears summary statements for former STO chairman's corruption case

Criminal Court has today heard the summary statement for the trial accusing former chairman of the State Trading Organization Plc, Farooq Umar of corruption.

The State attorney told the court today that a bribe of $19,000 (MVR 292,980) was deposited in Farooq Umar’s account in 2010.

Farooq’s lawyer Mohamed Fareed answered that Farooq’s bank account is open for anyone to deposit money and that the person who testified against him was a “malicious” person.

Farooq was indicted on the accusation that he had demanded a $100,000 illicit payment from Marimuth Udhayasundhara, the owner of Sri Lankan Royal Agency, who had been commissioned to supply rice to the Maldives through STO.

During the trial, the State had told the court that there was proof that a sum of $19,000 was transferred to Farooq Umar’s account at the HSBC branch in Male’ from a Royal Agency bank account at the Hatton National Bank Pvt Ltd, on 7th June 2010.

The State has requested the court to claim the bribe sums received by Farooq Umar.