Nareesh's shocking testimony in defence of Yameen ruled as false

The testimony provided by one man in the trial of President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom surprised many. 

This surprise was not because the deputy mayor of Male Ahmed Nareesh testified in the defence of Yameen, but rather because he had testified to counting MVR 15 million by hands. 

As per the verdict that came out against Yameen this was noted as a false testimony fabricated by the defence. Therefore, like many, who were surprised by Naresh's 'capable money counting skills' had thought at the time, Chief Justice Ahmed Shakil was convinced that the testimony of Nareesh and Rasheed was false. 

This was after taking into account many other evidence presented by the state, and the fact that neither Yameen nor his briber MP Yoosuf Naeem had made any such statement before.

What caught the public’s attention about Nareesh’s testimony in the court was the fact that Nareesh had counted MVR 15.42 million by hand although he could not remember how much time it had taken to do this.

After counting the money at Yameen's residence, G. Dhoovehi, Nareesh along with Rasheed had gone to Naeem’s house, where Naeem himself counted the money as well which was in two separate bags.

However there were contradictions in the testimonies provided by both Nareesh and Rasheed. For instance as per Nareesh when he arrived at G. Dhoovehi, Rasheed was already there. Contradicting this Rasheed had stated that Nareesh was already present when he had arrived later.

As per Nareesh’s testimony he himself had counted all the monies while Rasheed contradicted this by stating that Nareesh had counted just one bundle of MVR 50,000. As per Rasheed the monies were in MVR 50,000 bundles and all bundles appeared to be of the same size.

But he was unable to answer where Yoosuf Naeem’s house was, which roads they had taken to go there, what the house looked like, nor where in the house Naeem had counted the money.

Thus the Chief Justice Shakeel was unable to believe either of their testimonies.

“While the witnesses were able to precisely recall the colour of the car they had taken to Yoosuf Naeem’s house and where they had sat in this car, they were unable to confirm whether this had taken place during daytime or not which lead to  questions about the authenticity of the testimony provided.” 

“When the witnesses were asked questions which they might not have had prepared for nor had thought about before, it was noticeable that the witnesses could not answer such questions,” the trial report by the Chief Justice read.

The report also included other points where the judge had questioned the authenticity of the claims made by Nareesh and Rasheed. Among them was the fact that Yameen had chosen to stay silent throughout the investigation which, the Chief Justice highlighted, was a violation of the duty of the defence.

"While the defendants had not provided any witnesses during the investigation process, the testimony provided by the witnesses which were submitted later in this trial was questionable and seemed fabricated,” the judge had stated in the report.

The judge had also gone on to  include a statement in his judgement that was generally acceptable to anyone. 

If this had been a transaction about purchasing 1 million dollars why had the defendants not highlighted this in the investigative process considering the transaction then wouldn’t have been against the law.

“If there was evidence to get oneself out of a serious criminal accusation, it is highly doubtful that a person would not reveal this evidence” the verdict by the court's chief judge said.