Former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom on Tuesday declared that all of his assets in his bank accounts, which were recently frozen, are legitimate.
The former president made the statement during a Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) function, in response to a reporter's question regarding the Criminal Court's order to freeze Yameen's accounts at Bank of Maldives (BML) and Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB).
The order came upon the request of the police, who had later revealed last Saturday that the amounts in Yameen's accounts totalled over MVR 100 million.
Speaking at the function, the former president asserted that he would take responsibility for each and every letter in his official financial statement. While Yameen did not refute that his assets amounted to MVR 100 million, he criticised the police for sharing details of his statement, noting that information of bank accounts is personal.
This is the first time that the former president has addressed the issue of the police revealing his bank account details. The police made the revelation after summoning Yameen for questioning last Saturday.
However, at the time the police had only interrogated Yameen regarding MVR 22.5 million deposited into his bank account ahead of the 2018 presidential elections and a cheque of USD 1 million deposited into his account by Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC).
Yameen had replied that the MIB account was set up specifically for electoral expenses and the very same account was used during the 2013 election.
(developing...)