Ex-VP Adeeb sentenced to 20 years in prison in MMPRC graft case

The Criminal Court, on Monday, sentenced former Maldivian President Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Gafoor to 20 years in prison, after he plead guilty to seven charges pressed against him in connection to the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) embezzlement and money laundering scandal.

Adeeb had pled guilty to the charges at the Criminal Court last week, as part of a plea deal between him and the Prosecutor General’s Office. However, the sentencing was postponed to this Monday after Adeeb asked for time to renegotiate a lesser sentence with the state than the 20 years he stood to serve under the plea deal.

However, Adeeb failed in his attempt to renegotiate for a lesser sentence.

At the sentencing hearing at the Criminal Court on Monday evening, Judge Hassan Saeed said that he accepts Adeeb’s guilty plea.

The state asked for Adeeb to be sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined MVR 2 million, in accordance with the terms of the plea deal.

The charges and the penalties:

• Accomplice to embezzlement: 14 years, 9 months and 18 days in prison
• Accomplice to embezzlement: 2 years, 4 months and 24 days in prison
• Misuse of official capacity to obtain or confer an undue advantage: 6 months in prison
• Misuse of official capacity to obtain or confer an undue advantage: 1 month and 15 days in prison
• Abuse of power: 3 months in prison
• Money laundering: 5 years, 11 months and 21 days in prison, and a MVR 1 million fine
• Money laundering: 5 years, 11 months and 12 days in prison, and a MVR 1 million fine

Judge Hassan Saeed sentenced Adeeb to 20 years and prison and a fine of MVR 2 million, as requested by the state.

The state had originally pressed Adeeb with more than 30 charges in connection to the case, but later withdrew the charges and pressed the seven new charges under a plea deal; two counts of accomplice to embezzlement, two counts of misuse of official capacity to obtain an undue advantage, two counts of money laundering, and one count of abuse of power.

He had previously been charged in connection to each of the transactions and offenses in the case that investigators linked back to him.

The new charges, which ensure Adeeb serves significantly less prison time, were produced after combining the transactions and offenses.

However, Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem said in a press conference in July that investigators had collected enough evidence against Adeeb to press more than 150 charges and put him behind bars for 806 years.

Adeeb, under the plea deal, is providing information of others involved in the case.