Maldives protest over Cherie’s firm
CHERIE, HUMAN RIGHTS HYPOCRITE
PROTESTERS in the Maldives yesterday chanted ‘Cherie Blair, give us our money back’ after the Daily Mail revealed how she charged £420,000 to work for its autocratic government.
Hundreds also shouted ‘shame on Cherie’ and waved placards in the shape of cheques during the protest in the capital Male. At least half the cash her legal firm Omnia Strategy billed the repressive Maldives government was paid by a suspected conman who is now a fugitive.
Imthiyaz Fahmy, an MP for the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party, said the protest- ers were highlighting corruption in the country and human rights abuses by president Abdullah Yameen. He said: ‘People called for Yameen to return our money. People called on Cherie Blair to return the money too.’
Meanwhile Mohamed Nasheed, the former democratically elected president, alleged Mrs Blair’s firm initially offered to represent him but then ‘jumped ship’. He was deposed in 2012 and later jailed for 13 years. Omnia says it swiftly stopped working for the Maldives government after the ‘unpredictable domestic events that occurred in October and November 2015’ and was urgently reviewing the £210,000 payment.
Toby Cadman, a barrister on the advisory council of Omnia Strategy, said he made an initial pitch to Mr Nasheed but it was in his capacity as co-founder of a separate consultancy firm called International Forum for Democracy and Human Rights and ‘had nothing to do with Omnia or Cherie Blair QC’.