Hearing in Yameen’s money laundering trial cancelled after judge calls in sick

The hearing scheduled for Thursday in the money laundering case against former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom over the sale of V. Aarah for resort development has been cancelled.

Criminal Court’s media officer Aman Mohamed Najeeb told Sun the hearing was cancelled as Chief Judge Ahmed Shakeel, who is in charge of the case, was ill.

He said that the date on which the hearing would be held would be announced at a later time.

Yameen is on trial for money laundering and bribery in connection to the deal.

He is accused of misusing his position and taking a USD 1 million bribe to facilitate the sale of Aarah to Yoosuf Naeem, a former parliamentary representative for Felidhoo constituency, and laundering the money.

The state has also charged Naeem with giving the bribe.

Yameen entered a plea of “not guilty” in the case back in February.

Criminal Court had announced on Wednesday that it would livestream the trial via the court’s YouTube channel.

It had been Yameen himself who requested the court to livestream his hearings.

The court said earlier this year it remained on hold due to the limited resources at the court.

Following repeated appeals from Yameen to livestream his hearings, the judge said the court would try to livestream the hearings once the trial began.

The court had made decisions regarding pretrial motions during the last hearing, held last week.

The judge said that both the state and the defense failed to submit pretrial motions within the mandated timeframe, and decided to proceed with the trial.