Travel restrictions have been placed on former Deputy Speaker and Dhiggaru MP Ahmed Nazim following a Criminal Court order.
Nazim’s passport has been held, though police are not revealing further details of the case.
Nazim is the latest in a number of active cases against sitting MPs, the frequency of which last year prompted the Inter-Parliamentary Union to express concern.
The Progressive Party of Maldives MP was recently cleared of charges of defrauding the now-defunct Atolls Ministry.
Earlier this year, the High Court dismissed appeals from the Prosecutor General’s Office to overturn a decision reached in the Criminal Court in February 2012.
The former People’s Alliance member has been charged in 2009 with conspiring to defraud the ministry, with police revealing evidence that Nazim alone received US$400,000 in the scam.
Nazim lost his position as deputy speaker earlier this year as the PPM chose Abdul Raheem Abdulla to stand for the post, with the Fonadhoo MP eventually losing out to Maldivian Democratic Party MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik.
Additionally, an independent report into the disappearance of Minivan News journalist Ahmed Rilwan also mentioned the Dhiggaru MP’s name, alleging that Nazim had attempted to implicate the tourism minister Ahmed Adeeb in the case.
The report by private UK-based intelligence firm suggested that Nazim had promised to provide a journalist with information linking Adeeb – also deputy leader of the PPM – with corruption if he could be linked to the disappearance of Rilwan.
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