The State has requested the Criminal Court to keep certain pieces of evidence confidential in the ongoing case against former President of the Football Association of Maldives (FAM), Bassam Adeel Jaleel. Bassam is facing charges of money laundering and corruption, accused of misappropriating USD 9,999 (MVR 154,000) from funds provided by FIFA to FAM in 2018 for personal use, by allegedly transferring the money to his personal bank account.
During a hearing held yesterday, the State requested that FAM’s bank statements, along with the account details of several individuals to whom money had been transferred from Bassam’s account, be kept confidential. Despite the confidentiality request, the State said it had no objections to Bassam’s legal team reviewing the documents in court.
Bassam’s lawyer, Ibrahim Shameel, questioned why there had been no prior indication that confidentiality would be requested for these documents, asking to view the form submitted by the State for this purpose. Judge Ismail Shafeeu assured that a copy of the form would be provided today.
In addition, Bassam's legal team claimed that some of the documents submitted by the prosecution were unclear and requested new copies. The judge allowed them until October 23 to obtain these documents from the Prosecutor General's Office, with the option to raise the issue in a pre-trial motion if the documents were not provided by the deadline.
A follow-up hearing is scheduled for later this month, where the defense will have the opportunity to respond to the charges.
Meanwhile, in a related case, the police have ordered Bassam to hand over two flats in Hulhumalé, allegedly purchased using FAM funds, by the end of today.
