Uncertainty hinders investigation of Russian man’s sex assault claims

Police are investigating complaints that a 29-year old Russian national visiting the Maldives faced threats of sexual assault from an unidentified man he met online after coming to Male’ to work for him, despite claiming to have very limited details on the suspected attacker.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said that the claims made last week by the Russian national presented an unprecedented case in the country and that investigators still needed additional details on the exact nature of complaints made regarding the expatriate’s allegations.

“The alleged victim came to police to complain about an individual he said had invited him to Male’ for a job after befriending each other online. After saying he would find him job, it was claimed that the person attempted to sexually abuse the alleged victim,” he said. “He didn’t have much detail about the alleged assault attempt, but we have noticed that the Russian national has been speaking to local media outlets about this.”

Shiyam added that police were hoping to question the suspect as part of its investigations, but were not at present looking to make arrests as the case is claimed to still miss vital details about what exactly had happened.

“At the moment we are just working on reports, but the alleged victim does not know anything about the individual who invited him out,” he said. “We are not sure from our interview if the suspect is a local businessman or even a Maldivian national. However, the case could be serious and we are treating the investigation as such.”

Shiyam claimed that the police were themselves hoping to speak to the Russian national further regarding the alleged incident in order to try and clarify who the alleged attacker could be.

The Russian Embassy based in Sri Lanka, which overseas administrative affairs for its nationals coming to the Maldives, was unavailable to respond to Minivan News at the time of press regarding the investigation.

Resort case

Aside from the Russian national case, Shiyam said that police had concluded an investigation into an unrelated sexual assault case alleged to have occurred at the Shangri-La Vilingilli resort in Addu Atoll. Police today said they had since ended their investigations into the allegations without making arrests.

A female member of staff at the resort complained to police last week that she believed she may have been sexually assaulted by a fellow colleague after being taken back to her room having felt unwell upon consuming a drink.

After having conducted medical checks at a local hospital and investigations at the resort, Shiyam said that no charges had been pressed against the suspect.

“The alleged victim was unsure exactly what has happened herself and no arrests had been made as part of the investigation,” he said.

Shiyam said last week that the alleged victim, who worked at a bar on the resort, had reported feeling unwell after drinking an alcoholic drink and was helped to her room by another member of staff.

According to police, upon being returned to her room, the alleged victim claimed that she had not been unaware of any assault upon herself.

However, Shiyam said that other sources had later come forward to claim that some sexual activity was believed to have occurred in the room involving the alleged victim.

In addressing current police procedure regarding suspected cases of sexual assault, Shiyam claimed that police were trained to investigate in various ways; including taking alleged victims to hospital for medical examinations to identify any possible signs of rape.

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