The Maldives Criminal Court on Monday ordered authorities to take former president Abdulla Yameen into custody until the conclusion of his trial on money-laundering charges.

The 59-year-old former president, who lost the presidential election in September, is charged with depositing USD $1 million into his private account by the [private company] SOF and using money stolen from state coffers to do “financial transactions from which he obtained profit.” The former president was also separately charged with bribing a witness to provide false testimony to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The chief judge of the criminal court, Judge Ahmed Hailam, granted the remand order according to Maldives’ constitution, which allows defendants to be detained prior to sentencing in order to prevent interference with witnesses. A spokesman for the Maldives Correctional Service confirmed that the former president was taken to a remand center on the Maafushi island.

The criminal court has already frozen Yameen’s local bank account holding more than USD 6.5 million and local currency. The former president has denied any wrong-doing and appealed against the freezing of his bank account.