Former Vice President Ahmed Adheeb arriving in court on Wednesday. PHOTO / MIHAARU
Former Vice President Ahmed Adheeb on Wednesday claimed that he was arrested on trumped-up charges and that the state is trying to frame him.
Adheeb, who is already serving a 33 year prison sentence, made these accusations at the Criminal Court during his trial for the new charge of ‘abuse of power for illegitimate private gains’.
During Wednesday’s preliminary hearing for the charge, the former VP accused the state of fabricating letters and documents as evidence against him.
He stated again in court that he believes these are nothing but politically motivated charges.
Further, Adheeb raised concerns over the Criminal Court’s acting chief judge, Adam Areef, presiding over his case. He repeated his earlier request to debar the judge from all of his cases.
“Having the same judge preside over 10 similar cases is not fair to me, and it violates my rights,” Adheeb said in court.
He had also requested for a lawyer to move forward with the hearing, to which the judge complied. He gave Adheeb 10 days to appoint a lawyer, and said that additional days will be given should there be a reasonable cause of delay in appointing a lawyer.
Another hearing of the case will be held 10 days later, the judge had said.
Before the trial started, the former VP, who was seen wearing a murky brown shirt, had greeted his wife Mariyam Nashwa and Galolhu-South MP Ahmed Mahloof and casually asked whether they were doing fine.
When Adheeb was coming out of the courtroom after the trial, MP Mahloof said that “this will be over soon,” to which Adheeb humbly replied “it will”.
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