Author: Minivan News

IGMH website hacked

The official website of the Male’ City’s state run hospital, Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), has been hacked.

According to IGMH Media Officer Zeenath Ali, the website was hacked on Sunday, October 12.She has told local media that the hospital’s IT department is currenlty working on retrieving the website.

Zeenath stated that the hospital’s management does not have any knowledge of who might have been behind the hacking.

Earlier in October, the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) official site was also hacked, while multiple government websites were taken down in May after an online hacker defaced pages with messages raising awareness of atrocities in the Syrian civil war.

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Case of unauthorised imam sent to prosecutor general

Police are reported to have concluded investigations into an imam accused of giving unauthorised sermons at Malé’s Dharumavantha Mosque.

Sun Online reports that the case has been sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office after a 34-year-old man was taken into custody for leading an independent prayer congregation on September 30.

He stands charged of of “attempting to incite religious strife and discord,” said police, and leading prayers without authorisation from the Islamic ministry in violation of the Protection of Religious Unity Act of 1994 and regulations under the law.

Home Minster Umar Naseer has pledged to stop the congregation meeting at the mosque. The gatherings, deemed “extremist” by the Islamic Minister, have continued even after being temporarily shut down in February by Malé City Council.

Reports that police had arrested worshippers at the mosque earlier this month were denied by police, however, who accused media outlets of attempting to mislead the public.

In April, President Abdulla Yameen ratified amendments to the Religious Unity Act – which came into force mid-July – outlawing independent or unauthorised prayer congregations. The amendments will also bring all mosques under the central administration of the Islamic ministry from November 1.

The penalty for violations of either the law or the regulations is a jail sentence of between two to five years.

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Majlis session cancelled due to no work, EC nominees to be considered

Tomorrow’s sitting of the People’s Majlis has been cancelled as no tasks are currently pending for the full house.

Deputy Speaker ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik is reported to have urged Majlis committees to expedite their work. Today’s sitting was just the second since MPs returned from recess at the start of the week.

During today’s session the names of two nominees to the vacant seats on the Elections Commission (EC) were sent to the independent institutions committee for consideration.

Asim Abdul Sattar and Aishath Hatheef have been nominated to the five member commission by President Abdulla Yameen.

The commission was reduced to 4 members after the resignation of Ibrahim ‘Ogaru’ Waheed on health grounds last year, before President Fuwad Thowfeek and Vice President Ahmed Fayaz were removed by the Supreme Court in March.

Ismail Habeeb Abdul Raheem was subsequently approved by the Majlis in order to fulfil the EC’s required quorum of three members.

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Democratic decline in the Maldives – will the world wake up?: Open Democracy

“The Maldives should be seen as a microcosm of many aspects of struggles taking place throughout the world: long-standing elites exert a retrograde influence on rights, democracy and social freedoms, and by doing so they help themselves to profit from corruption, cronyism, and the enervation or breakdown of democratic institutions,” writes Matt Mullberry for Open Democracy.

“Accordingly, civil resistance becomes the necessary mechanism for people to try to save democratic practices and individual rights.

This same dynamic played out in South Africa during the long struggle against apartheid, in the Philippines in the 1980s, and during the Arab Spring. Within all these struggles, the concern and action of other governments, especially those in the democratic world, had a serious impact.

Here the stakes are just as large, albeit in a remote island nation. The international community has the opportunity to defend a set of democratic ideals to which it has long paid lip service, at a very low cost, and by doing so affect the lives and fortunes of a nation’s people.

The question right now is simple:  Will international actors who believe in genuine democracy be consistent in defending it, regardless of the stakes and the context?”

Read more

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Nasheed’s residence in Addu attacked during early hours

The home in which former President Mohamed Nasheed is staying during his trip to Addu was last night pelted with stones, the party has claimed.

Nasheed’s residence was attacked at around 1am on Monday morning, with the party telling local media that the incident has been reported to police.

With the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) president visiting the southern atolls on party business, a rally held in Feydhoo on Friday was attacked by youths wielding wooden planks and rocks before the party’s local headquarters were torched.

All seven suspects arrested in connection with the attack in Feydhoo have since been released, prompting condemnation from the MDP. Nasheed himself has today expressed thanks to the local police, noting the difficult circumstances in which they are working.

Nasheed – recently elected as MDP party president – lodged a complaint with Metropolitan Police Service in the United Kingdom earlier this month following a death threat sent to his phone while attending the Conservative Party conference.

The MDP’s offices in Malé were also attacked on three successive nights last month, with a number of attacks on the homes of its MPs accompanied by continued SMS threats.

Speaking in Fuvahmulah during the trip to the southern atolls, Nasheed suggested that senior politicians were behind the attacks and that the government was failing to deal with escalating gang violence.

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16-year-old girl now missing for 49 days

Police have yet to reveal any information on the missing 16-year-old girl, Fathimath Malha, who was reported missing on August 25.

Local media has reported the case as being a ‘runaway’, though police media have declined from explaining on what basis the case is being investigated.

“I can only confirm that the matter is being presently investigated. We will not be revealing any further details to media,” an official told Minivan News.

A description of the missing girl on the police website states that she is dark eyed, curly haired, slim, and tall.

Police have sought public assistance on the case, appealing to citizens to contact them on 3322111 or their Family and Child Protection Department on 9790163 if anyone possesses any information regarding the case.

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Majlis asked to approve new ambassador to India and PIC members

President Abdulla Yameen has chosen to appoint former Commissioner General of Customs Ahmed Mohamed as the Maldivian ambassador to India.

Ahmed Mohamed’s name is scheduled to be sent to the parliament which will conduct background checks on the candidate before making a decision. The Majlis returned from recess today.

It is believed that Ahmed Mohamed was dismissed from his position at customs after a disagreement with the government over the recruitment policies.

Local media has reported that his removal from the post followed his refusal to bow to government pressure to bypass regulations in the appointment of customs officials.

The current ambassador to India is Mohamed Naseer who was formerly the foreign secretary at Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

President Yameen’s nominees for the two vacant seats on the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) were also been sent to parliamentary committees for evaluation at today’s sitting of the Majlis.

The nominees for the PIC – Saeed Moosa, of special registry number 5381, and Fathimath Minhath Izzath, of Galolhu Gofi – are to be evaluated by the independent institutions oversight committee.

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Addu Council to prioritise dealing with waste management issue in 2015

Addu City Council has announced that they will be prioritising a waste management programme when drafting the budget for 2015.

The council stated that there is an even higher need for this at present due to the development of guest house tourism in the city.

Addu City Mayor Abdulla Sodiq also reflected on the importance of increasing public awareness on waste management, local media reports.

The council stated that the waste management system they intend to introduce will facilitate the conversion of recycling and the production of fertilisers through the burning of waste.

The council had previously discussed conducting a waste management program in Addu with the assistance of the Ministry of Environment.

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Media council re-opens membership application

The Maldives Media Council (MMC) has reopened the application process for new members for the third time.

In a statement released today, the home ministry said that the application would be open for applicants who want to become a member of the committee until October 22.

The MMC consists of eight members from the media and seven members from the general public who are not affiliated with the media.

Complications with the first attempted application process caused the elections to be postponed, while the second attempt was delayed after issues were raised regarding inactive media outlets still being eligible to vote.

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