Former President of the Maldives Abdulla Yameen was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $5 million in what has turned out to be the island nation's largest corruption scandal, media reported Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2019) Former President of the Maldives Abdulla Yameen was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $5 million in what has turned out to be the island nation's largest corruption scandal, media reported Thursday.Yameen, who served as president from 2013 to 2018, was found guilty of receiving $1 million of embezzled government funds through a private company as part of an illicit resort lease deal, according to the Maldives Independent newspaper.
Earlier this year, Maldives' Anti-Corruption Commission investigated the jailed ex-president for being at the center of a $79 million embezzlement network.
The sentencing had been long anticipated and scandal-ridden. The announcement of the verdict was scheduled for November 5 but was delayed after a confrontation of judges with differing attitudes toward Yameen resulted in the public dismissal of one judge, Ahmed Hailan, according to the newspaper.
