Lawyer says President Solih is pressuring to send Yameen abroad

Former Vice President and current attorney for former President Abdulla Yameen, who is serving a five-year jail sentence for money laundering, Dr. Mohamed Jameel Ahmed has said that the current President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih is pressuring to permit Yameen to travel abroad for medical care. 

Yameen is serving the sentence after being found guilty of money laundering in relation to the MMPRC scandal. 

Speaking in a press conference yesterday, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said that the accomplices of Yameen in the scandal such as former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb and former Managing Director of MMPRC Abdulla Ziyath was under house arrest due to the recommended documents of doctors to keep them under house arrest. Yameen was being kept in prison since there was no such document from a doctor. 

Dr. Jameel today tweeted that the statement by the President described the public as fools and dimwitted. 

He said that Adeeb and Ziyath were under house arrest because they had given statements against Yameen. Jameel said that there was evidence to support this.

He said that the defense team of Yameen had presented documentation of medical experts stating that Yameen required a stress-free environment and should be kept under house arrest, which was repeatedly rejected. 

“Individually, from President Solih’s side, the pressure is being made to send Yameen abroad through different people. Why is he so impatient to send Yameen abroad?” said Dr. Jameel. 

Adeeb is serving a sentence of 20-years while Ziyath is serving a sentence of 11. They are both under house arrest. 

Yameen has previously complained of his ill-health and the conditions of prison affecting his health, during appeals to the High Court. Yameen had stated that a doctor of the National Cardiac Center had informed him after consultations that he had an anomaly. The doctor had stated that there were no other assessments that can be made in the Maldives for the complication.

Yameen had also stated in court that he had a health problem with a disc of the spine which also required surgery abroad.