Abdulla Yameen was found guilty of two counts after a court found he had accepted bribes.

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Jailed former Maldives President Abdulla Yameen was released from custody on Thursday after the High Court overturned his 11-year prison sentence on corruption and money laundering charges.

Three judges on the Indian Ocean archipelago nation’s high court found Yameen’s trial in 2022 unfair and ordered a new trial.

“The lower court’s ruling was unfair,” Judge Hassan Shafiu said as he read out the lengthy ruling, which was broadcast live.

The decision comes ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections, in which Yameen is selecting candidates from the party he formed while serving a prison sentence.

Yameen was found guilty on two counts of accepting bribes to lease an island for tourism development while in power from 2013 to 2018.

Thursday’s ruling overturned that conviction. Yameen’s co-defendant Yusuf Naeem, a businessman who allegedly paid $1 million in bribes, was also released.

Yameen, 64, was being held in the high-security Maafushi prison but was moved to house arrest the day after his ally Mohamed Muizou won the presidential election last September.

The pro-China former leader borrowed heavily during his five-year term to build thousands of homes and other infrastructure on the small but strategic Indian Ocean archipelago.

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