Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) has decided to appeal the ruling by the Criminal Court that former Islamic Minister Dr. Ahmed Ziyad Bagir was not guilty of the corruption charges pressed against him.
Speaking at a press conference held on November 14, Prosecutor General (PG) Hussain Shameem expressed concern over the Criminal Court’s ruling over the Ziyad case. He said the PGO will appeal the decision at the High Court of the Maldives.
The former Islamic minister was charged by the state under Section 513 (b) of the Penal Code of the Maldives, over the corruption involved in contracting SJ Construction Private Limited to develop Zikra Mosque. The charges were pressed in September last year, but the trial had been delayed due to changes to the overseeing judge of the case.
Ziyad was charged for his role in the corruption involved in contracting SJ Construction to develop a new 10-storey building for Zikra Mosque. The contract worth USD 8.4 million was awarded under the contractor financing model in July 2018. However, the current administration terminated the agreement with SJ Construction after the company failed to complete the project within the allocated time frame.
Delivering the verdict, the Criminal Court stated the witness testimonies have shown Ziyad had signed the agreement with the approval of the Ministry of Finance and therefore he was not responsible for errors in the agreement. The court also stated it was not reasonable for Ziyad to take the blame for any unseen error in the agreement when other officials had also failed to see them. It also stated the Islamic ministry did not have the final say in the agreement and was only responsible for starting the project.
The court also found the former head of the Islamic ministry's endowment Abdulla Saeed not guilty of the charges.