Criminal Court asks police to find Gayoom’s brother, former Atolls Minister Abdulla Hameed

Police have confirmed a request from the Criminal Court to bring former Atolls Minister Abdulla Hameed before a court in the Maldives, after a summons could not be delivered to him in a pending case.

Several hearings have been cancelled in a high-profile corruption case involving Hameed, who is the brother of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, after the court was unable to determine his whereabouts and deliver a summons.

Police said that the Immigration Department had been instructed to hold Hameed’s passport should he ever return to the Maldives.

Police spokesperson Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam explained that when the court first requested police to produce Hameed he was not in the Maldives.

”But the court have not yet issued an arrest warrant or requested his arrest via Interpol,” Shiyam said. ”His whereabouts remain unknown.”

Hameed is being sought by the court in a trial concerning corruption allegations in the former Atoll’s Ministry’s Audit Report.

The audit of the Atolls Ministry’s showed that 17 staff employed by the Ministry in 2007 never appeared for work but were being regularly paid by the Ministry, at a total cost of Rf1.4 million (US$109,000).

According to the report, a further 38 persons employed by the ministry were not assigned any daily work, but were also paid regularly. The report stated that occasionally the heads of atolls were brought to Male’ and kept for a long period of time without assigning them any duties. One such atoll head was brought to Male’ in October 2007 and left 10 months later in August 2008, at a cost to the Ministry of Rf 241,862 (US$18,800).

Web of corruption

In March last year, minority opposition People’s Alliance MP Ahmed Nazim pleaded not guilty to charges of defrauding the atolls ministry.

At a press conference in August 2009, Chief Inspector Ismail Atheef said police had uncovered evidence that implicated Hameed along with Eydhafushi MP Ahmed “Redwave” Saleem, former director of finance at the ministry, and Deputy Speaker Nazim in fraudulent transactions worth over US$260,000 (Mrf 3,446,950).

Police exhibited numerous quotations, agreements, tender documents, receipts, bank statements and forged cheques proving that Nazim received over US$400,000 in the scam.

A hard disk seized during a raid of Nazim’s office in May allegedly contained copies of forged documents and bogus letter heads.

Police maintain that money was channelled through the scam to Nazim who laundered cash through Namira Engineering and other unregistered companies.

Police further alleged that MP Saleem actively assisted the scam in his then-position as director of finance at the ministry, while Nazim’s wife Zeenath Abdullah had abused her position as a manager of the Bank of Maldives’ Villingili branch to deposit proceeds of the fraudulent conspiracy.

Police said Hameed, also long-time Speaker of the People’s Majlis, played a key role in the fraud by handing out bids without public announcements, making advance payments using cheques against the state asset and finance regulations, approving bid documents for unregistered companies and discriminatory treatment of bid applicants.

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11 thoughts on “Criminal Court asks police to find Gayoom’s brother, former Atolls Minister Abdulla Hameed”

  1. Deputy Speaker Nazim, Redwave Saleem, and Hameed. All these people implicated but no hard evidence? Or convictions? Are these efforts at rooting out corruption sincere!?

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  2. I feel pity for our police force. One will ask them to run after dollar notes. Another will ask them find someone's brother. I wonder whats next?

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  3. Could our justice system get any worse? Its a big joke to many of us. We as a country has utterly failed in the most basic form of constitutional rights. Corruption has ruined this country and is still ruining.

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  4. The guy is living in Singapore. Let the police contact Corruption Practices Investigation Department of Singapore and they will haul him back to Maldives. They guy is holding PR now through Shaheen Hameed after paying 2 million dollars

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  5. No evidence or the court refuses to see the cases nd giv justice? its really obvious who controls this courts, fact and point Yameen is brining changes to judicature acts.

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  6. Poor Police!!! Why can't they task MNDF to do any dirty work for a change...

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  7. Abdulla Hameed currently resides in Sri Lanka...@ pellawatta, Battaramulla..

    i am sure the Maldivian Embassy in Sri Lanka will know his address... so why the hell is the police saying his where abouts is unknown...

    or is this a game to put pressure on the many children A. Hameed has, so that they make a deal and join the govt... ?

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  8. Ask Hussein Maniku Dhon Maniku - Hameed's long time lover. He will know. And the Police will know that too.

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  9. @Salim

    good point raised. We are all blinded by the multitude of corruption cases we are forgetting to see how corrupt the Anti-corruption commission is!

    They play the game the way they want it! And are highly incompetent in their investigations.

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  10. And meanwhile one of the most corrupt men in Maldives , Ibrahim Hussein zaki continues to cut deals

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