Criminal Court, on Sunday, has again ordered the release of SeaLife Global’s Managing Director Ahmed Moosa Mohamed (Ammaty).
Ammaty is pressed with multiple charges for defrauding over 200 tenants out of millions in booking fees for a proposed fake apartment complex in suburban Hulhumale’.
During today’s hearing, the prosecution had stressed possibilities of Ammaty fleeing if he was released like the previous time he fled to SriLanka but Presiding judge in the case, Judge Hassan Saeed, ordered the conditional release which would later be informed to both the prosecution and Ammaty.
This is the third-time Ammaty is being released after being arrested. The last time he was released on bail after the court accepted his sisters as surety. However, High Court later overturned this decision.
Around 280 tenants paid a booking fee of MVR 50,000 (some more than MVR 50,000) but the proposed SeaLife Complex was never built and the tenants were never reimbursed for their down payments. The cumulative total of the booking fees collected by SeaLife is estimated to be more than MVR 14 million.
Ammaty was extradited to Maldives in March 2021 after Interpol issued a Red Notice for his arrest and was charged with 42 counts of embezzlement which could see him behind bars for 65 years if convicted.
