High Court accepts appeal in corruption case against ex-VP Jihad

The High Court has accepted the appeal filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) over the Criminal Court’s decision to dismiss a corruption case filed against former Maldivian vice president and finance minister Abdulla Jihad –nearly three months after the court rejected the original appeal petition for failing to meet the deadline.

Jihad, who now serves as the chairperson of the Maldives International Financial Services Authority (MIFSA), was charged in 2021 with using the influence of his position to obtain or confer an undue advantage in a manner which precludes an advantage to state where a benefit exists following an investigation into a project to develop K. Fushidhiggarufalhu as a special tourism zone.

The case was dismissed by the Criminal Court on July 25, after Judge Hussain Faiz Rashad decided it cannot be tried based on civil standard of proof.

The PGO appealed the decision with the High Court on August 11, arguing that the court failed to state a constitutional basis for the decision or sufficiently explain its reasoning. But the case was rejected on September 19 after the court was unable to serve Jihad – who had been overseas at the time - with the court summons. The court gave the PGO a 15-day window to resubmit the appeal.

The PGO resubmitted the appeal with the High Court on October 15 after the police notified them that Jihad had returned to Male’.

But the High Court dismissed the appeal, citing that the 15-day window given by the court had expired on October 13 – two days before the PGO resubmitted the appeal.

The PGO subsequently filed for a review of the decision with the High Court’s Council of Judges on October 30.

The decision was reviewed by a three-member council composed of Judge Huzaifa Mohamed, Judge Dheebanaz Fahmy and Judge Hassan Shafeeu.

The council decided two-one in late November that there are no grounds to overturn the decision of the court’s registrar as the PGO had clearly failed to submit the appeal by the deadline.

The PGO filed a petition with the High Court seeking to resubmit the appeal on December 8, and also filed an appeal with the Supreme Court on December 12.

A spokesperson from the High Court said on Wednesday that a three-member bench of the court decided to accept the appeal on December 19.

According to the court, the judges made the decision after the PGO satisfactorily explained the reason it failed to meet the deadline.

The PGO had previously said that it had been unable to meet the deadline because of lack of arrangements to present Jihad to court.

The charge against Jihad stemmed from a decision he made to sign a joint venture agreement for the Fushidhiggaru project in 2013 when he was serving as finance minister during former President Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan’s administration.

The cabinet made the decision to make a joint venture agreement with 50 percent government partnership to develop Fushidhiggarufalhu as a special tourism zone under the advisement of the National Planning Council on November 29, 2011. It was decided that the government will not put up any capital, and will receive land rent from the project.

At the time, the Prosecutor General’s Office said that the then-finance minister Jihad, signed an agreement with Prime Capital Maldives Limited to form a joint venture to develop Fushidhiggarufalhu as a special tourism zone on January 13, 2013 with 25 percent government share instead of a 50 percent government share as had been decided by the cabinet, acting in clear contravention of the cabinet’s decision for no credible reason.

In accordance with the National Planning Council and the cabinet’s decision, the state would have earned USD 411,720,000 as land rent and USD 192,993,750 as prime location charge over a period of 50 years.

The PGO said Jihad’s actions precluded the state from USD 604,713,750 (MVR 9.32 billion) in land rent alone.

Jihad had faced five years of imprisonment, banishment or house arrest if found guilty of the charge against him.

The case against Jihad was initially investigated by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). However, the commission found no evidence of corruption in 2016, after which the Prosecutor General’s Office asked the Presidential Commission on Corruption and Asset Recovery to investigate.

Jihad had initially served in former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s administration as finance minister, but was later chosen as his vice president.

He had also been prosecuted for failure to vacate an apartment at the Rehendhi-3 complex where he resided in during his time as vice president. However, the case was dropped in January, after the new administration came to power.

Jihad had distanced himself from active politics following Yameen’s failed re-election bid in 2018. He later served as special advisor to Jumhoory Party (JP)’s leader Qasim Ibrahim. He rejoined PPM-PNC on September 23, 2023, after the first round of presidential elections.