A 55 year-old male accused of molesting a minor in Male’ this week has surrendered to authorities, police have confirmed.
Police spokesperson Sub-Inspector Hassan Haneef confirmed that the suspect, identified as Saeed Ahmed, was presently being held in custody after handing himself over to officers yesterday evening (December 31, 2012).
According to the Maldives Police Service (MPS), the suspect stands accused of entering a house in the capital where the 13 year-old girl was staying at around 9:30pm before sexually assaulting her on Sunday (December 30).
Haneef confirmed Saeed was presently the only suspect being sought in connection to the alleged sexual assault of a 13 year-old girl.
Police had yesterday published a picture of Saeed in local media to appeal for information from the public on his whereabouts.
The assault was the third suspected case of sexual abuse involving children or young women to have been reported over the last week.
On Saturday (December 29), police announced the arrest of a 33 year-old man on suspicion of raping of a girl below 16 years of age in Vili-Male’.
The man identified as Mohamed Abdushukoor, 33, of Galolhu Red Coral, was accused of forcing the under-aged victim into a house in Vili-Male’ at about 1:00pm while she was out walking with her 14 year-old brother.
Police accused the suspect of keeping the pair in separate rooms as he sexually abused the girl. The incident was reported to the Police Family and Child Protection Unit.
Authorities have also confirmed that a 13 year-old living on Gahdhoo in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll was last week sexually assaulted in an abandoned home on the island after being drugged and abducted.
Sub-Inspector Haneef confirmed yesterday that two 16 year-old males and an 18 year-old man had been arrested on December 27 in connection with the alleged rape. However, he could not specify further details on the case as investigations were continuing.
The Maldives Police Service confirmed that the detention period of the three suspects had been extended from three to 15 days.
Assault concerns
According to an unpublished 2009 study on violence against minors, almost one in seven children of secondary school age in the Maldives have been sexually abused.
The same study claimed that sexual abuse rate of girls in the country was found to be almost twice as high than cases recorded against boys.
One in five Maldivian girls has been sexually abused – while the figure for boys was 11 percent. Female minors were particularly at risk in the capital Male’, the report found.
A 2007 study on Women’s Health and Life Experiences has previously concluded that one in three Maldivian women aged 15 to 49 experience either physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives, including during childhood.
In recent years, local authorities and NGOs have released a number of findings highlighting the extent of child abuse and wider sexual assaults within society.
The state-run Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital’s (IGMH’s) Family Protection Unit reported in 2010 that the centre was notified of 42 cases of rape between 2005-2010. Most of these cases were found to involve minors.
According to the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives, 13 rape cases were reported last year alone, the majority of which most were gang rapes or assaults involving minors.
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Castrate him, without anesthetics!
And then ask him questions.
Maldivians are rapists with no who would rape anyone and everyone like your sunni brothers in pakistan do
Women never get raped in india
You are all neanderthals, scraggly
and of a caste way below us indians.
Hindu Indians are ethnically superior
@Indhira Newdhelhi on Tue, 1st Jan 2013 4:01 PM
True, women never get raped India, they just get murdered.
Maldives is in the throes of a painful death, and there are no real doctors, only quacks that bandage the bleeding wounds, without addressing the root problems.
@Impartial Comments
We all know the root problem of the Maldives that is; following a constitution which says to upheld Islamic law but ignores it all together and then goes on following the Ape brains and the dinosaur egg ancestors which ultimately brings laws which protects such animals like this rapist but ignores the rights of the small girl. What else can we do???despair, despair!!!
@Indhira Newdhelhi
So the rape of the medical student who died in Singapore this week of multiple organ failure did not happen?? and the demonstrations in Delhi protesting the escalating violence against women in India and the indifference of public institutions including the Indian Police on the plight of violated women is just a story?
Yes we have our share of social evils and ills as any other country but for someone from India to speak of the plight of women in the Maldives is surely the pot calling the kettle black?
We won't even go there about the shocking girl child situation in India.
We are going through a very difficult time in the Maldives as we transition from one man rule to separation of powers. We need support and compassion instead of judgement and vilification as we walk the path of reconstruction and rehabilitaion of those who have lost their way. I request that you refrain from the xenophobic and racist comments against our people and race, they help no one.
@Indhira Newdhelhi
So the rape of the medical student who died in Singapore this week of multiple organ failure did not happen?? and the demonstrations in Delhi protesting the escalating violence against women in India and the indifference of public institutions including the Indian Police on the plight of violated women is just a story?
Yes we have our share of social evils and ills as any other country but for someone from India to speak of the plight of women in the Maldives is surely the pot calling the kettle black?
We won’t even go there about the shocking girl child situation in India.
We are going through a very difficult time in the Maldives as we transition from one man rule to separation of powers. We need support and compassion instead of judgement and vilification as we walk the path of reconstruction and rehabilitaion of those who have lost their way. I request that you refrain from the xenophobic and racist comments against our people and race, they help no on
within 6 months he will be out on the streets to sexually abuse more young girls.
@Shafeea
Lies and all propaganda against india!
How dare you
@Indhira Newdhelhi
Wow! Not just racist and xenophobic, but demented too.
'New Dheli is now dubbed as 'Rape Capital' . Every 14 minutes a women was raped there. @Indra New Dheli I very much doubt that you were an Indian. Most probably JJ.