Muizzu not meeting Yameen over Corrections ban, govt says
Shaheeb said that the President has fulfilled his campaign promise to release Yameen on the day he won the election.
By
Fathmath Ahmed Shareef
Spokesperson at the President's Office, Mohamed Shaheeb, has said that President Mohammed Muizzu has fulfilled his promise to free former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom and that he is not currently visiting Yameen due to the ban on the former president’s involvement in political activities and meeting politicians.
Shaheeb was asked by a journalist at a press conference at the President’s Office on Thursday whether President Muizzu has held any discussions with Yameen so far.
Shaheeb said that Yameen is currently serving a judicial sentence and there will be restrictions on him meeting politicians and participating in political activities. Shaheeb said that Yameen was transferred to house arrest upon President Muizzu’s agreement on the conditions and so he did not want to meet Yameen and hold discussions until concessions are made for Yameen.
"That being said, [President Muizzu] does not think it is right to meet with President Yameen, or discuss or do any such thing on the phone. So Dr Muizzu will not do that unless he gets the concessions," Shaheeb said.
Replying to a question about the President's promise to release Yameen, Shaheeb said:
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The President has fulfilled his campaign promise to release Yameen on the day he won the election
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With the victory of the election last September, President Muizzu had asked the previous government to move President Yameen home, Shaheeb said
He said on Thursday that he made two promises to President Muizzu Yameen during his presidential campaign. He said:
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Yameen's sentence is a political sentence and if he comes to power, he will be transferred to his home; Yameen was transferred to his home on October 1 after winning the election
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Yameen's sentence is an interference in the judiciary and he will end such influence on the judiciary once he takes over; on the day he was sworn in, he said, he stopped all political influences upon the judiciary
"So the promise made by President Dr Muizzu has been fulfilled. Then you ask when will President Yameen be released? It is within the judiciary now. The government will not interfere in it," Shaheeb said.
President Muizzu repeatedly said during his campaign that he believed the judiciary would be liberalized in a PPM-PNC government and as a result, the party's then leader Abdullah Yameen would be freed.
The government on Thursday said it had fulfilled its promise to free President Yameen as it had now ceased to influence the judiciary. The hearings in the R. Fuggiri case have not been held for more than four months. The High Court has been hearing the appeal against Yameen's 11-year jail sentence for more than a month.
