Maldives seeks foreign help to investigate arrested judges’ wealth

GENEVA: Maldives will seek help from other countries to investigate judges suspected of taking bribes and "hijacking" the Supreme Court to drag the island nation into political crisis, a senior Maldives diplomat told Reuters in an interview.

The tiny Indian Ocean archipelago, best known for its luxury hotels and dive resorts, imposed a 15-day state of emergency on Feb 5 to annul a ruling from the court ordering the release of nine leading opposition figures.

"That was a direct attempt by the Supreme Court to halt the whole country and go into a deadlock," said Ahmed Shiaan, Maldives ambassador to the European Union.

He showed Reuters a Maldives police statement which said a bag containing $215,000 and 150,000 rufiyaa ($9,700) belonging to one Supreme Court judge had been found, and that $2.4 million had been separately wired to the judge by a private firm.

Shiaan said that judge, and a second judge on the Supreme Court, had been arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes from former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to deliver certain verdicts in his favour.

Gayoom himself has been arrested over allegations that he solicited bribes to topple the government.

"Together, it amounted to collusion to use the Supreme Court to overthrow a democratically elected and constitutional government," Shiaan said in the interview.

Gayoom’s lawyer Maumoon Hameed said he was detained under the state of emergency without any evidence or due process, which was unacceptable.

"If this is such a huge investigation and Gayoom is a dangerous person of interest why have they not questioned him in over 140 hours?"Lawyers for the two judges said their clients also denied all the charges.

One said his client had been refused permission to deny the charges. "So far what we know is that they (the two judges) have made at least 12 visits in the past few months to various countries, including India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the Netherlands and UK. And they have bought or acquired very expensive items (or) properties," Shiaan said.

"So the investigation is not limited to Maldives. Hence, we would need assistance from other countries for the investigation." Property purchases abroad needed to be disclosed and $2.4 million is beyond the reach of a judge’s salary, Shiaan said.