A forensic report of chatlogs from the phone of former Maldivian Vice President Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Gafoor, dubbed the ‘Adeeb Files’, that recently went viral on social media platform X is a highly redacted version, says former Home Minister Umar Naseer, adding that the leak of the full version will leave the leaders of the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) exposed.
The forensic report in question was compiled by UK-based Faraday Forensics in 2015, and covers over 2,900 pages of chatlogs, contacts, calendars and photos extracted from the phone of Adeeb, who was convicted of being a ringleader behind the Maldives’ greatest corruption scandal, the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) graft case.
These chatlogs, which includes texts with well-known figures including ministers, other government officials, senior police officers, judges, parliamentarians from both the government and the opposition, politicians, journalists and local celebrities, garnered renewed public scrutiny after it was leaked on Saturday by ‘Jubraan Shareef’, an anonymous account on X.
Umar, who sat with Adeeb in former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s cabinet and served as home minister from 2013-2016, spoke about the ‘Adeeb Files’ in an episode of SSTV’s ‘Baaru Hathareh’ on Monday.
Umar said that the recently leaked chatlogs are “just half of it”.
The former home minister said that the police had failed to secure Adeeb’s phone and laptop back then. He said the devices were taken to London, and fell into the hands of a group of people who belong to the MDP.
However, he did not specify who they were.
Umar alleges that they had scrubbed the devices of all data that could incriminate MDP officials. He said that the recently leaked report is therefore a highly boiled down version.
Umar said that if all chatlogs were to leak, it would also expose MDP’s leaders.
“I can say this will certainty. All MDP parliamentarians back then, except for maybe three or four, took money from Adeeb. I say this because I am privy to records of this as one of the people who led the investigation into this,” he said.
Umar said the chatlogs reveal the extent to which corruption has spread within political parties.
“What I see from these partial chatlogs is the extent to which corruption plagues parties. Political parties, courts of law… Political parties plan to come to power with their eyes firmly on state coffers,” he said.
Then-Vice President Ahmed Adheeb (L) and then-Managing Director at Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) Abdulla Ziyath during a press conference. (Sun File Photo /Ali Naseer)
Both Adeeb and Abdulla Ziyath, who had headed the MMPRC when the corruption took place, were convicted of charges of corruption and money laundering in the case in 2020, and sentenced to over 20 years in prison, under a plea deal with the state.
But former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who get elected to office on the promise of delivering justice in the case, had commuted their sentences in 2023, mere days before his successor, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu had been set to take office.
The MMPRC graft scandal – which involved the embezzlement of millions of US dollars from the sale of islands and lagoons leased for tourism – had hit international headlines. The news agency Al Jazeera had used chatlogs extracted from Adeeb’s phone for its 2016 documentary ‘Stealing Paradise.’