Yameen seeks exclusion of unauthenticated recordings from Aarah trial

Former President Abdulla Yameen has appealed a Criminal Court decision to admit audio recordings submitted by the prosecution as evidence in his ongoing corruption trial concerning the lease of V. Aarah.

The appeal was filed at the High Court on Wednesday, challenging the admissibility of recordings purportedly containing telephone conversations involving Yameen in 2013.

The recordings were submitted by the prosecution in the case against Yameen and former MP Yoosuf Naeem.

Yameen's defence had previously requested that the recordings be excluded from evidence during pre-trial proceedings.

According to the High Court's registry, an appeal was filed on Wednesday against a pre-trial ruling issued by the Criminal Court in the Aarah case.

Hamza Latheef, a member of Yameen's legal team, told Dhauru that the appeal challenges the Criminal Court's decision to admit audio recordings whose authenticity has not been established.

He said the recordings allegedly contain conversations involving Yameen from a period before he assumed the presidency.

According to Hamza, the prosecution had previously informed the court that it would prepare an audio analysis report to establish whether the voice in the recordings belonged to Yameen.

However, he said no such report had been prepared.

The defence argues that admitting recordings without verifying the identity of the speaker could undermine confidence in the fairness of the proceedings and affect the rights of the accused.

Hamza said the defence had also asked the High Court to establish principles governing the admissibility of such evidence.

The Aarah corruption case is currently being heard by the Criminal Court for a second time.

Yameen was initially convicted in the case on 25 December 2022 and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

The conviction prevented him from contesting the 2023 presidential election.

However, on 18 April 2024, the High Court overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial.

The High Court subsequently ruled that the Criminal Court had been wrong to admit additional evidence submitted by the prosecution to rebut Yameen's defence evidence.

It also ordered that the case be reheard by a different bench.

The Supreme Court later upheld the High Court's decision.

Meanwhile, proceedings in a separate corruption case against Yameen concerning the lease of R. Fuhgiri have reached the verdict stage.

Yameen faces charges of accepting a bribe and money laundering in connection with the lease of the island.

The Criminal Court had initially scheduled the verdict for Thursday, 29 October, but the announcement has been postponed.