Former Chief Justice of of the Supreme Court Abdulla Saeed has denied allegations of corruption after a case against him and another former Supreme Court, Ali Hameed, were filed with Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).
Abdulla Saeed is currently a judge on the new Supreme Court bench, and was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court during the constitutional interim period.
Local radio station SunFM reported that the two judges were accused of corruption and a case was filed in the ACC, alleging that the two judges had paid their personal telephone bills from Supreme Court’s funds.
SunFM quoted a senior staff member at the judiciary as saying that the phone bills of each of the judge totaled over Rf 17,000 (US$1323) each month.
”Last month judge Abdulla Saeed’s spent Rf 25,000 (US$1945) of the Supreme Court’s money as phone allowance,” SunFM quoted the source as saying.
SunFM also reported that judge Ali Hameed’s car was damaged twice in accidents and was also repaired using Supreme Court money.
The source in the judiciary also alleged that Ali Hameed had threatened a staff member at the Finance Department of the Supreme Court saying that he would be sacked if the did not hand over the money to fix the car after the second accident.
Judge Abdulla Saeed dismissed the allegations as ”lies”.
”W have never involved ourselves in any financial or administrative work of the Court,” Saeed told Minivan News. ”Any allowances we receive will be only those mentioned in the laws, and we do not have any other allowances.”
Saeed said the Supreme Court judges were ”very sincere in upholding the constitution and maintaining rule of law. I am very confident that no judge at the Supreme Court bench will violate any laws.”
He also said the financial report of the judges was submitted to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) annually.
”The Commission has the power to oversee all our credit card transactions as well,” he said, adding that the Supreme Court was to issue a press statement over the allegations.
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has called into doubt the JSC’s independence, noting in its recently-published report that “to date, JSC decision-making has been perceived as being inappropriately influenced by a polarised political environment. Also troubling is that members of the judiciary have been subject to threats and intimidation as well as improper inducements by both governing and opposition party members.”
(0)Dislikes
(0)