Author: Ahmed Nazeer

Visa and work quota functions of human resource ministry reassigned to immigration

The Cabinet has decided to reassign certain functions currently in the mandate of the Ministry of Human Resources, Youth and Sports (MHRYS) to more relevant offices, the President Office has revealed.

According to the president office website,  the cabinet took this decision during  Tuesday’s cabinet meeting “‘because those functions of the MHRYS overlap with the mandate of other offices.”

When these changes come into effect, issuing of quota and work permits and related work will be done by the Department of Immigration and Emigration while issuing of licence for employment agencies, making regulations to facilitate employment agencies and other related work will be carried out by the Ministry of Economic Development.

Maintaining statistical records and research on job market and publishing information the job market will also be done by the Economic Development, president office said.

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High Court invalidates Maafushi Court’s ruling on prison officers’ beards

The High Court has ruled that Maafushi Court’s ruling that prison officers on the island be allowed to grow their beards was unlawful because Maafushi Court gave no opportunity for the defendant – the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS) – to say anything before the case was concluded.

The High Court also said that Maafushi Court’s ruling stated that the case was presented to the court by eight parties, but said that in the form presented to Maafushi Court there was only one person listed as the petitioner.

The High Court’s ruling, delivered by High Court Judges Shuaib Hassan Zakariyya, Abdulla Hameed and Yousuf Hussain, delivered the verdict made no mention about the legality of prison officers growing beards.

Last year a group of prison officers working for the DPRS filed a case against a requirement that male officers shave off their beards.

Maafushi Court Judge Ibrahim Hussain at the time ruled that men should not be told to shave their beards ‘’to make them look like women’’. All Prophets, from Adam to Mohamed (PBUH), grew beards, the judge observed.

In September last year, Rector of the Faculty of Sharia Law, Dr Ibrahim Zakariyya Moosa, reportedly said that a female student wearing the face veil studying at the Faculty of Sharia Law would be asked to remove it during class or face being expelled if she refused to do so.

Later the girl filed the case in the Civil Court, which has not yet reached a verdict.

Speaking to the press, current Attorney General Azima Shukoor said wearing the face veil in class should not be banned.

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Five Thai women and three Maldivian men arrested for prostitution

Police have arrested five Thai nationals and three male Maldivians inside ‘Herbal Beauty Salon’, located in the second floor of Maafannu Sherrif.

Police said the eight individuals were arrested after the police received information that prostitution was conducted at the location.

Police Spokesperson Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam confirmed that five Thai women were arrested and three other Maldivian men were also arrested.

Shiyam said the men were still in police custody and that police were investigating the case.

The criminal court identified the five arrested Thai nationals as Neetha Seng Thong, Sutheetha Thanuvathu,  Thaaniga Thuan Youth, Pacha Pon Punpheythu and Nicharda Konfan.

The three Maldivian men arrested as Hassan Zareer, Male’, Mujuthaba Abdulla of Hinnavaru in Lhaviyani Atoll and Ibrahim Abdul Hafiz of Ihavandhoo in Haa Alifu Atoll.

According to police the group were involved in sexual activities when the police raided the beauty salon.

Shutting down alternative medical centres that conduct sexual activities were one of the five demands made by the then-opposition coalition while Mohamed Nasheed was in power.

The former government then closed all the massage parlors and spas nationwide including those used for tourism purposes.

In a statement the Adhaalath Party has congratulated the police for the closing ‘Herbal Beauty Salon’ and thanked the Islamic Ministry for their role in it.

The party also appealed to all the citizens to cooperate with the government to erase prostitution from the Maldives.

According to local media, those arrested were taken to the Criminal Court, where their detention period was extended to five days.

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Police officer and family attacked in Gemanafushi

A group of two men have attacked a police officer and his two brothers on the island of Gemanafushi in Gaafu Alifu Atoll.

According to police, last night at about 7:00pm two men attacked the police officer after he tried to stop the motorbike they were riding, allegedly because he was riding too fast and the islanders had complained about it.

Police said the two men assaulted the police officer and fled, and an hour later stabbed the officer’s younger brother in the head and another of his brothers in the stomach.

The victim stabbed in the head was 19 years-old and the other was 24 years-old, according to police.

Police said three persons have been arrested in connection with the case.

Gemanafushi Island Council President Asim Mohamed told Minivan News that the police officer tried to stop two persons that were speeding on a motorbike.

‘’They attacked the police officer when he stopped them and islanders gathered to the area and controlled the fight,’’ Asim said. ‘’Later the police officer’s brothers went to confront the persons that attacked the police officer, that’s when they were injured.’’

He said he did not know whether the attack on police officer was politically motivated.

‘’But they both are Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) supporters,’’ he claimed.

Asim said the victim stabbed in the stomach was in a serious condition and that his appendix had to be removed.

There has been a growing animosity between security forces and MDP supporters, following the role of the police in the ousting of former President Mohamed Nasheed on February 7. Tensions escalated last week after a raid on the MDP protest camp near the tsunami monument memorial, in which several MDP supporters were injured. One supporter was taken to hospital after he was discovered injured amid the rocks that make up Male’s eastern sea wall.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam claimed the attack on Gemanafushi occurred due to “continued support and encouragement from political figures to attack police.”

Police are investigating the incident.

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MMA accepts MDP MP Musthafa’s BCCI debt after the court rejected the money

The Civil Court has refused to accept payment of the debt it had ordered paid by Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Mohamed Musthafa, after the ruling against him was last week upheld by the Supreme Court.

The case had been filed against him by Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) Deptuy Leader Umar Naseer, and the ruling meant that Musthafa was disqualified as an MP for the former ruling party, forcing a by-election in his seat of Thimarafushi.

Musthafa this morning sent a person to pay the debt to the court – a loan of US$31,231.66 (Rf 481,952) borrowed from the now defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).

The Civil Court has confirmed that a person had sought to pay the debt on Musthafa’s behalf, after the Supreme Court ruling did not mention that the money was to be paid to the former ‘Madhanee’, or Civil, Court.

Until President Nasheed signed the Judicature Act into law last year, the official name of the Civil Court had been Madhanee Court – ‘madhanee’ being the Arabic word for ‘civil’.

MDP MP Musthafa today told Minivan News that he had been trying to pay the money every day since losing the caase last Friday, but said the court had not accepted it.

‘’Today I thought I would inform that media and send someone to the court to pay the money, and the court did not accept it again,’’ Musthafa said. ‘’I wrote a letter to the court but they did not respond to it.’’

Later today, Musthafa said the Civil Court registrar had called him and met with him, and said the Supreme Court’s ruling did not specify who the recipient of the money was to be, and that the Civil Court did not know what they should do with it, Musthafa said.

‘’The Supreme Court told me to get assistance from the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) and the Attorney General,’’ he said. ‘’So then I sent the money to the MMA, and the MMA has received the money.’’

He also said that tomorrow he will file a case in the Civil Court asking the court to order the MMA to pay him the US$500,000 that the BCCI was obliged to pay Musthafa, in a separate case concerning the supply of meat and other goods.

‘’They have today proved that the MMA are the live parent of BCCI [despite BCCI being defunct],’’ he said. ‘’This is funny to me – because when they have to pay me something owed by BCCI, they deny they are the live parent, but when I have something to pay to BCCI they become the live parent of BCCI.’’

In November last year Musthafa threatened legal action against the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) if it did not pay the US$500,000 that BCCI owed his company Seafood International, alleging that the sum was due to be paid to his company according to a 1991 London court ruling.

Citing MMA as the “live branch of BCCI in the Maldives,” Musthafa previously stated that “the debt of a dead person has to be paid by a living legal parent.”

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Police arrest 13 in violent clash at MDP camp, after police stations vandalised

Police arrested 13 people after clashing with demonstrators at the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s ongoing protest early on Wednesday morning.

The MDP accused police of vandalising the MDP’s protest camp near the tsunami monument and attacking the party’s supporters at 2:45am in the morning.

However police have said they were pursuing a a group of young people on motorcycles who had attacked police buildings that evening, before retreating to the MDP camp

An MDP supporter who witnessed the incident told Minivan News that the police arrived after a group of young people opened a ‘Youth Jagaha’ near the tsunami monument, and then left on motorcycles to ride around the streets.

“They apparently vandalised some police stations during the motorbike ride, and then the police came and attacked the protest camp,’’ he said. ‘’Police destroyed our podium in the area and the sound system, as well as chairs and other property,’’ he claimed.

One young person was thrown into the sea wall and was subsequently taken to hospital.

Police said a group of men armed with knives vandalised police stations in Male’, threatening officers in the traffic police station with knives and destroying a computer monitor. The group also threatened officers inside the Police Iskandhar Koshi.

Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam told Minivan News that police had followed the group to the area on the side of the tsunami monument park furthest from the MDP camp, near the army medical centre, where they had been attacked.

“Police called for backup and by the time the pickup arrived, people were there with stones,” Shiyam said. “When police entered the [camp] to arrest the suspects forcefully, everyone in the area became hostile to police. There was a huge confrontation,” he added.

Several police officers sustained injuries, none serious, he said. Police arrested 13 people and withdrew from the area.

“This was a very serious thing and we are sad that it happened,” Shiyam said. “We have no interest in doing anything [to the MDP camp], and we don’t want to have a confrontation. But people are coming out of the area, committing acts of violence, and going back there to hide, which is not something to be accepted.”

Police had asked organisers of the protest to take responsibility for the actions of those gathered there, he added.

MDP supporters have held an ongoing protest near the tsunami monument, dubbing it ‘justice square’, following the resignation of former President Mohamed Nasheed in what they contend was a coup d’état.

MDP supporters have been sleeping and gathering in the area since Nasheed’s resignation, reportedly under duress.

The party has meanwhile released  pictures of injured protesters and vandalism of the square.

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MDP vows to deadlock parliament until government sets deadline for early election

Former President Mohamed Nasheed on Monday morning said the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) will deadlock parliament until the government sets a date for an early presidential election.

Nasheed addressed the people gathered at the party’s ongoing rally near the tsunami monument, and said that it was necessary that the government set a date that no later than the end of this year, in line with recommendations by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group.

Nasheed said that setting a date after opening the parliament was not wise, and that the increase in political friction would not solve the issue.

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“Whenever I started something you guys obstructed me”: resort owner Shiyam argues with Gasim in leaked audio

Local newspaper Haveeru has published an audio recording on its website of a dispute between Independent MP Ahmed ‘Sun’ Shiyam and leader of the Jumhoory Party (JP) ‘Burma’ Gasim Ibrahim, both also resort owners.

In the audio clip, Shiyam alleges that whenever he started a business, Gasim and Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali, when they were in cabinet, obstructed him.

Shiyam also alleges that all the rights to do business were given to Gasim and Thasmeen at the time, and complains that he did not have similar rights.

He also reminds Gasim of the things former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom had done to Gasim. However, Gasim replies that he only accepted the position of finance minister under Gayoom after the former president begged him to accept it.

Ahmed Shiyam: If Maumoon has done the things that he did to Gasim to me, today also I would have been behind him.

Gasim Ibrahim: Shiyam is going crazy. What has Maumoon done for me?

Shiyam: What hasn’t he done for you? He let you sign the Maldivian currency, he appointed you as the Finance Minister.  So what hasn’t he done for you?

Gasim: That’s what you think.

Shiyam: He made you the Speaker of the Special Majlis.

Gasim: Hey let me tell you, only those who know it knows it Shiyam. Although you were near [Gayoom], you do not know it right.

Third voice: He [Gasim] was jailed [by Gayoom].

Shiyam: Why was [he] jailed? Because he brought the 12th and 13th [Black Friday, a crackdown on a protest in 2004 by the National Security Service].

Gasim: Who was it that brought the 12th and 13th? Shiyam you are not ready to come out and talk about politics. [People laugh]

Gasim: I did everything for Maumoon after he begged me. He took me to the President’s Office for five days in July 2005. Ask that Mohamed Hussain how many times [Gayoom] called me to offer the [finance] minister’s position on July 26, independence day?

But I said ‘no, no I don’t want it’. [He offered me] the minister’s position. I said I did not want it, I did not want itat all. That was after I came out of jail. I said I did not want it, I wanted to work for reform.

After I returned Dr Hassan Saeed [then Attorney General], Dr Ahmed Shaheed [then Foreign Minister] and Justice Mohamed Jameel [then Justice Minister] were always around me. The President’s two [sons or daughters] came to my house and waited for four or five hours on different days to talk to me. When I couldn’t get rid of them I said I had two obligations for them: one was to continue the reform. I knew they wouldn’t spare me and even if I got a little bit away from it they would get rid of me.

I know it because I know who they are. So I said there are two conditions: one is to continue the reform agenda and that if they stopped it, I would leave them immediately. The other is to keep all the staff of the Finance Ministry without moving them elsewhere, as I know how their agenda will be. So [I told them] if it went to the worst case I am not a well-educated person so I will need educated people and I have a brain so I know how to do it.

I told them that the staffs should be there the way I want, and after they pledged to fulfill the both conditions I said all right, I will accept your offer. My friends at the that time told me not to do it, the country’s situation is like this and that but I did not listen to them. Two of my friends told me like that but I did not listen to them. Why did I go? I did not join them because I wanted to do many things, there would be nothing that I did when I was there or nothing that I gained.

Shiyam: I believe that when you people were in the cabinet, while Gasim and Thasmeen was in the cabinet, the rights given to citizens to do business was given all to them and whenever I started something you guys obstructed me.

Gasim: You have such a crooked mind Shiyam.

Shiyam: No this is just experience.

Gasim (furious): We don’t care about you man. You know we don’t care about you. Who are you? This man always comes up with something like this. You can’t do everything you want, there are laws and principles.

Shiyam: You did not do everything according to the laws and principles. You did not have your lands and things according to the laws and principles.

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Police summon former Defence Minister and President’s Office Undersecretary for questioning

Police have summoned former Defense Minister Tholhath Ibrahim to for questioning over former President Mohamed Nasheed’s arrest of Criminal Court Chief Justice Abdulla Mohamed.

Former Undersecretary of the President’s Office Ibrahim Rasheed ‘Hoara Ibee’ has also been summoned for questioning  to over alcohol bottles police reportedly discovered inside Presidential Residence Muleeage, on the day of the police mutiny.

Rasheed today told Minivan News that he was summoned to police and asked about the bottles, and that he answered the police questions.

‘’I told them that the area where they found the items can be accessed by anyone who enters Muleeage so nobody could be certain who they belonged to,’’ Rasheed said. ‘’We believe there was police mutiny in February 7 – the  day they claimed to have found those bottles – and we are not sure whether it was the police or the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) who were in control of Muleeage that day.’’

Rasheed said ‘’I think their main objective is to destroy our reputation, it’s what they have always been doing, so we expect more allegations.’’

Tholhath confirmed to Minivan News that he was questioned about the arrest of Judge Abdulla Mohamed.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam also confirmed that the pair were summoned for questioning over some cases reported to police.

He said that as the investigation was still not concluded, police could not give further details.

Criminal Court Chief Judge Abdulla Mohamed was arrested by the MNDF on the evening of Monday, January 16, in compliance with a police request.

The judge’s whereabouts were not revealed until January 18. The MNDF had acknowledged receipt but not replied to Supreme Court orders to release the judge.

Prosecutor General (PG) Ahmed Muizz joined the High and Supreme Courts in condemning the MNDF’s role in the arrest as unlawful, and requesting that the judge be released. Former President Mohamed Nasheed has maintained that he was upholding the constitution in the arrest of the judge, following the failure of both parliament and the judicial services commission to adequately investigate him, after the Chief Judge in September 2011 had the civil court issue an injunction against his further investigation by the judicial watchdog.

Opposition political parties held a series of protests which culminated on the morning of February 7 with the resignation of Nasheed – allegedly under duress – and the handover of the presidency to Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan.

The same day, MNDF and police officers claimed to have found alcohol bottles and hash oil in the presidential residence.

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