MALDIVES ISLAND SCAM: Yameen ‘took gifts from developers’

The president of the Maldives appeared to accept lavish gifts from a billionaire developer who was later leased two islands in the paradise archipelago without bidding for them, a corruption watchdog alleged yesterday.

The claims -- including that President Abdulla Yameen directly participated in a multi-million dollar scam that helped developers skirt public tenders and acquire dozens of islands and lagoons -- come days before the strongman leader seeks re-election in the nation of 340,000 people.

Yameen, whose main political rivals are in jail or exile, has denied any involvement in the alleged island-leasing scam, which first came to light in a 2016 investigation by Al Jazeera.

His deputy and then-tourism minister Ahmed Adeeb, who was accused of spearheading the scheme between 2014 and 2015 and paying off judges and politicians, was later jailed on multiple charges including corruption.

But new allegations of Yameen's involvement have been made by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which gleaned fresh details from leaked government documents and other evidence it says implicates the president.

The global investigative journalism consortium says Yameen assisted with at least two dozen no-tender deals to tourism resort developers, and directly ordered one island be leased through a state-owned company.

Reporters also allegedly acquired photographs showing that Yameen and Adeeb were gifted luxury stays in Singapore by a billionaire hotelier, who was later granted one uninhabited Maldivian island for $5 million and another for free.

Independent reporting in the Maldives is difficult and Yameen has cracked down on the press in the lead up to Sunday's poll.