Author: Minivan News

Police start sea search for Maail, missing for 7 days

Maldives Police Services have initiated a sea search for Abdullah Maail, a 24-year-old from Dhaalu Kudahuvadhoo who has been reported missing for seven days.

Police media told Minivan News that officers have finished searching the island where Maail was believed to have disappeared, and have now extended the search to the surrounding seas.

A police press statement released last week said that Maail was last sighted at Shaviyani Firunbaidhoo – an uninhabited island where he works as a farmer – and that he was last seen with his bags.

Police will work alongside the Maldives National Defense Force and have requested any information regarding Maail’s whereabouts be submitted to police hotline 332 2111.

Likes(1)Dislikes(0)

First meeting on Chinese tourist safety held

The first convening of the ‘Joint Meeting Mechanism’ to discuss the safety and security of Chinese tourists in the Maldives has been held between foreign minister Dunya Maumoon and Chinese Ambassador Wang Fukang.

Dunya spoke of the importance of strengthening tourism ties between China and the Maldives and stressed the significance of the joint mechanism to facilitate a line of communication regarding the safety of Chinese tourists, reported the foreign ministry.

“Ambassador Wang Fukang thanked the Government of Maldives for the coordination and cooperation extended in ensuring a safe environment to the Chinese tourists in the Maldives,” the statement read.

The meeting was attended by senior officials from the Maldivian foreign service and the embassy of China, along with representatives from the tourism ministry, the immigration department, the police, the Maldives Customs Service, as well as relevant tourism industry groups.

The joint mechanism was agreed under an MoU signed during Chinese President Xi Jinpeng’s official visit to the Maldives in September 2014, during which President Abdulla Yameen expressed his hope Chinese visitors would increase three-fold over the next four years – which would mean nearly one million Chinese visitors a year.

While one Chinese tourist was killed in a motorcycle collision in the capital last year, the majority of casualties are related to water sports – most often drowning.

Likes(1)Dislikes(0)

Government discusses healthcare with China and Lithuania

The Maldivian delegation to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) 136th executive board meeting have held talks with the Chinese and Lithuanian governments on aiding the development of the Maldivian health care system, the health ministry reveals.

In a statement by the ministry it was revealed that discussions with the Chinese delegation had resulted in commitments to provide the Maldives with medical equipment and doctors.

Further, in accordance with the MoU signed between the governments, the Chinese government agreed to expedite scholarships for Maldivian medical students, along with increased efforts to boost Chinese alternative forms of medicine in the Maldives.

The Lithuanian delegation agreed to provide training, expert advice, and technical support to developing specific fields in medicine in accordance with the findings a team of neurosurgeons from the country who visited the Maldives last year.

The Maldivian delegation in the talks was led by Minister at the President’s Office Mohamed Hussain Shareef who was accompanied by State Minister for Health Hussain Rasheed, Deputy Director of Health Aishath Samiya, and Director of the Health Protection Agency Maimoona Abubakr.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

JSC taking applications for six Judgeships

The Judicial Service Commission has opened applications for the vacant positions on the benches of the High Court, Civil Court, and Criminal Court.

In an announcement made today, the commission stated that applications will be open from today till 3pm on February 10, 2015, for one High Court judge, four Civil Court judges, and one Criminal Court judge. The application forms will be available on www.jsc.gov.mv.

High Court Judge Yoosuf Hussain retired from the bench today, reportedly due to poor health, while Civil Court judge Aishath Shujoon – one of the first female judges in the Maldives, resigned in late December of last year.

Likes(2)Dislikes(0)

Hospital worker and wife latest to travel for Jihad

Media reports say a former cleric of Malé’s Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital and his wife have become the latest Maldivians to travel to Syria for jihad.

Police have told media it is investigating reports that Zameer Farooq, from Gaafu Alifu Kanduhulhudhoo, and his wife have travelled to Turkey via Dubai in order to enter ISIS-held territory.

With Haveeru reporting a group of six having departed last week, as well as a dozen more said to have gone at the start of January, the exact numbers of Maldivians abroad for jihad is unclear.

Police Commissioner Hussein Waheed last month estimated that around 50 Maldivians were working with foreign rebel groups.

Media reports today say that Farooq had been investigated by police in relation to a robbery just days before travelling to Turkey on January 29, though police media officials were not responding to calls at the time of publication.

The group said to have left in early January included Azlif Rauf – a suspect in the murder of MP and moderate Islamic scholar Dr Afrasheem Ali, an individual arrested over the disappearance of Minivan News journalist Ahmed Rilwan, a man arrested for issuing a death threat, a man classified by the police as a dangerous criminal, and three men with criminal records.

Waheed has acknowledged the difficulty in tracking individuals intending to travel for jihad, though it was recently reported that four would-be jihadis were apprehended in Malaysia in January, while three were apprehended in Sri Lanka in November.

Haveeru reported that those returned last month were released after their passports had been seized by authorities.

Commissioner Waheed has said that police are working with the Islamic ministry and relevant government departments to prevent radicalisation , though he said the variety of people travelling for jihad made it hard to target the most vulnerable groups.

Those leaving the country for Islamic State-held territories have included couples and even entire families since the first Maldivian jihadis were reported early last year.

“We know who the foreign militants are,” Waheed told media last month. “We are monitoring their activities. My hope is, I believe we will be able to monitor them to the extent they are unable to [present a threat] in the Maldives.”

A UN report obtained by the UK’s Guardian has noted foreign jihadists are travelling to Syria and Iraq on “an unprecedented scale”, with 15,000 people reported to have travelled to the region from more than 80 countries.

In November, a jihadist group called Bilad Al Sham Media (BASM) – which describes itself as ‘Maldivians in Syria’ – revealed that a fifth Maldivian had died in Syria.

Two months earlier, a protest march took place in the capital, Malé, with around 200 participants bearing the IS flag and calling for the implementation of Islamic Shariah in the Maldives.

The march followed a statement from foreign minister Dunya Maumoon condemning “the crimes committed against innocent civilians” by ISIS.

Defending the government’s stance on extremism and ISIS, Islamic minister Dr Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed told the Majlis late last year that “Maldives will not allow Maldivians to go and fight in foreign wars”.

“We do not support their [ISIS] extremist policies. We have repeatedly appealed to our beloved youth to refrain from falling prey to these ideologies,” he said.

*Original headline changed from ‘IGMH Cleric’ after concern about potentially misleading issues regarding translation of the word ‘Mudhimu’ – meaning an official who gives out the call to prayer.


(PHOTO: March for Shariah, Malé, September 2014)


Related to this story

Islamic Minister advises Maldivians against participating in foreign wars

Maldives a “land of sin”, says jihadist after departing with family for ISIS territory

Two immigration officers and Afrasheem murder suspect among group of twelve jihadis

Likes(2)Dislikes(0)

High Court Judge Yoosuf Hussain retires

High Court judge Yoosuf Hussain has retired today, with sources close to the court telling Minivan News the decision was made on grounds of ill-health.

According to a statement on the court’s website in Dhivehi, Judge Yoosuf served on the bench of the interim Supreme Court between 2008 and 2010, before being appointed to the High Court.

He had previously served as the chief judge at the Family Court, as a judge at Court No.1, and and as a legal officer of the now-defunct Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs.

Although this is the first time a High Court judge has retired, Ahmed Shareef – initially appointed as the court’s chief judge – was demoted to the Juvenile Court in August 2014 by the Judicial Service Commission.

Likes(1)Dislikes(0)

Passport of former defence minister Nazim’s wife held

The passport of the wife of former Minister of Defence and National Security Mohamed Nazim is also being held by authorities.

Nazim’s lawyer Maumoon Hameed confirmed that the passport of the former minister’s wife Afaaf Abdul Majeed’s was held on Tuesday night (27 January), along with Nazim’s, under a court order.

Meanwhile, Maldives Police Services revealed on January 29 that it found a pistol and a makeshift explosive device at Nazim’s home during a raid on January 18. Nazim was dismissed from the cabinet on January 20.

Commissioner of Police Hussein Waheed told media last week that, after searching Nazim’s home using “forced entry”, the police found a 9mm handgun, an improvised explosive device, 3 bullets, and a magazine.

Maumoon Hameed,who replaced former Attorney General Azima Shukoor this week – released a statement last week denying his client’s knowledge of the items.

“The items claimed to have been found at Colonel Mohamed Nazim’s residence by Police Commissioner Hussein Waheed do not belong to Colonel Nazim or his family, and if there were any items were present at the house, they were there without Colonel Nazim’s or his family’s knowledge,” read the statement.

Likes(1)Dislikes(0)

Maldives – Inching again towards political showdown?: South Asia Monitor

“With the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and the Jumhooree Party (JP), one-time ally of President Abdulla Yameen’s ruling combine, deciding to work together in ‘defence of the Constitution’, the stage seems set for another political showdown of unprecedented proportions, if the government does not take appropriate correctives at appropriate time(s),” writes N. Sathiya Moorthy for the South Asia Monitor.

“Adding spice, and possible urgency, to the show at present is the revived high court hearing on MDP leader Mohammed Nasheed’s suspended plea, challenging the constitution of a three-judge criminal court to try him on charge of illegally detaining Criminal Court Chief Judge, Abdulla Mohamed, in January 2012, when was president.

It had begun with the Yameen government having parliament amend the Judicature Act to reduce the Supreme Court strength from seven justices to five. It was followed in equal haste by the removal of then Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz and another. Though there was no love lost between the MDP and the two judges, and Nasheed had continually targeted Justice Faiz, the two ‘impeached’ judges had actually given dissenting observations when JP leader-cum-presidential candidate Gasim Ibrahim challenged certain decisions and directions of the Election Commission (EC) as a prospective ally of fellow candidate Yameen during the two-stage presidential polls of 2013.

It’s thus a continuing irony of Maldives’ infant democracy that Gasim should now be turning against Yameen and his government, after the latter denied him parliament speaker’s post, a job he coveted after being the speaker of the Special Majlis which drafted the ‘democratic Constitution’ of 2008. The Yameen camp possibly had other suspicions as the speaker is the second in line of succession for presidency after the vice-presidency, should a contingency arose.”

Likes(1)Dislikes(0)

President nominates new High Commissioner to Pakistan

President Abdulla Yameen has forwarded the name of Ahmed Saleem to the Majlis for approval as the Maldives’ new high commissioner to Pakistan.

The post was vacated when Major General (retired) Moosa Ali Jaleel was appointed as the minister of defence and national security after the dismissal of Colonel (retired) Mohamed Nazim on January 20.

Likes(1)Dislikes(0)