Category: News in Brief

Police commence search for suspect in Hajj pilgrimage payment “fraud”

The Maldives Police Service has commenced a search for a 42-year old Hulhumale’-based businessman wanted for questioning on suspicion of fraudulently collecting funds from Hajj pilgrims.

According to local media, Ismail Abdul Latheef, head of the Maleesha Hajj and Umra Group is under investigation by police for alleged fraud concerning payments received by his company for this year’s Hajj Pilgrimage.

Police have said that attempts are ongoing to locate and question Latheef, who is suspected of having fled the country, the Sun Online news service has reported.

Authorities have claimed that 52 complaints have so far been received over alleged payments made to the Maleesha Hajj and Umra Group.

Police Spokesperson Sub-Inspector Hassan Haneef was not responding to calls at the time of press.

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PPM MP Mahlouf to donate committee allowance

Galolhu Dhekunu MP and spokesperson for the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Ahmed Mahlouf has told local media of his intention to donate his parliamentary committee allowance to three civil society organisations.

“From October onwards, I plan to donate my committee allowance to Care Society, Tiny Hearts and Thalassaemia Society,” he told Sun Online.

He also announced that he would give a further MVR10,000 – earned from singing – to the Care Society.

Members of Parliament receive MVR20,000 (US$1,298) for committee work, plus MVR20,000 up front for general expenses, on top of their normal salaries of MVR42,500 (US$2,759).

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Former STO chair’s case passed to PG

The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) has sent a case concerning former Chairman of State Trading Organisation (STO) Farooq Umar to the Prosecutor General (PG).

The ACC has reportedly said that Farooq accepted a $19,000 (MVR292,800) from a Sri Lankan company.

Farooq also stands accused of using the corporate credit card for personal items, something the STO has said is allowed in emergencies according to its policy. Sun reported that Farooq had told the paper different in a previous interview.

Farooq was removed from his post when President Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan reconstituted the boards of government companies after taking office.

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Education minister says Pakistani visa process should be simplified

State Minister of Education Aminath Ali has highlighted the need to simplify the Pakistani visa procedure for Maldivian students hoping to enter the country’s higher-learning institutions, reports the country’s associated press.

Aminath is said to to have made the suggestion during a meeting with other ministry officials, claiming prospective institutions should be authorised to recommend student applications to the country’s foreign office as is standard practice elsewhere.

She is said to have been particularly interested in students being enrolled in courses teaching sharia and law, such as the International Islamic University and the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST).

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Nasheed fighting back: ETN Global Travel News

Speaking in London after meetings with British and Commonwealth officials, former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed said that despite his reservations regarding the decision of the Commission of National Inquiry (CNI), he no longer expected the international community to say it was a coup or to attempt his reinstatement, reports Rita Payne for ETN Global Travel Industry News.

He was, however, worried that a standard had been set by the President of the Maldives who is accused of being the perpetrator of the coup.

“I can understand that in a diabolical sense in some rationale, because if the Commonwealth says that it was a coup, they must correct it, and that in their mind can be very untidy, so they would rather say yes it was constitutional – but this means that we have not been able to break from our traditions of the mob taking over and forcing governments or power to be transferred.”

Nasheed argued passionately for the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group not to drop the Maldives from its agenda when it meets in New York this week. He feared that the Commonwealth would send out the wrong signal if the transfer of power in the Maldives was deemed to be legitimate and it no longer monitored the observance of democratic and civil rights in the country.

“If we are off the CMAG agenda, I can’t see how focus can be brought upon the situation and issues in the Maldives. We must remain on the CMAG agenda. I would be with the view that if the CMAG cannot be engaged in the Maldives and if they remove the Maldives from their agenda I don’t think that any dialogue would continue, and I feel that we would all end up in jail. So it’s really up to the international community and more specifically the Commonwealth countries to decide if they would want to support democracy in the Maldives.”

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India defends its backyard in the Indian Ocean: Wall Street Journal

“The whole world is watching China’s confrontations in the South China Sea and the East China Sea—but India is watching with particular concern,” Harsh V. Pant, a defence studies professor for King’s College, London, writes for the Wall Street Journal.

“India has no territorial claims here per se, but one Indian official recently said that the South China Sea could be seen ‘as the antechamber of the Indian Ocean,’ given the flow of maritime traffic. New Delhi is nervous about Beijing’s threat to the freedom of navigation, and this is one reason it is strengthening ties with island nations in the Indian Ocean.

This month, Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony travelled to the Maldives to shore up relations with the young democracy. He was ostensibly there to inaugurate a military hospital built with Indian assistance, but New Delhi used the occasion to make a slew of defence-related announcements.

Chiefly, Delhi will begin training Maldives’ air force and position a naval team in the islands to train Maldivian naval personnel. Mr Antony also said India would station a defence attaché in its Maldivian embassy, extend the deployment of a helicopter squadron in the islands for two more years, and help the Maldives government in its surveillance of its Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends for 200 nautical miles (370 km) from its shores.

All these take defence cooperation up to the next level. More importantly, they underscore India’s continuing commitment to Maldives, despite a somewhat contentious transfer of power earlier this year when its first democratically elected president Mohamed Nasheed resigned under pressure when protests broke out against him. Some saw this as a coup, but India isn’t taking sides. Some of this is sheer agnosticism on Delhi’s part—it doesn’t want to interfere in another nation’s internal affairs—but a lot of it is realpolitik too.

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India to build $US25 million police academy

Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shindey and Maldivian Home Minister Mohamed Jameel Ahmed have announced an agreement for the building of a new $US25 million police academy in Lhaviyani Atoll Dhihfushimaadhoo.

Local media reported Jameel as having said said the academy would be supplied by the Indian government.

During Jameel’s meeting with his Indian counterpart – who is in town for the SAARC ministers’ meeting tomorrow – is also said to have included talk of tstrengthening the police and the prisons, as well as discussion of terrorism and religious extremism.

The ‘SenaHiya’ Military Hospital in Male’ was officially opened earlier this month at a ceremony inaugurated by Indian Defence Minister Shri A.K. Anthony.

Jameel also said that the Indian home minister pledged to replace all police vehicles destroyed during the unrest that flared across the country following February’s transition of Presidential power.

India has also releases a further US$25million credit facility to the Maldives – part of a US$100million dollar package agreed upon with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last November

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Waheed appoints ‘Sandhaanu’ Luthufee fourth advisor

Local newspaper Haveeru has reported the appointment of a fourth advisor to President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan.

Ibrahim ‘Sandhaanu’ Luthufee is said to have returned to the country after self-imposed exile in Switzerland where he was supported by the United Nations and the Swiss government.

Luthufee was was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Gayoom administration for publishing an anti-government newspaper before escaping in 2005 when he was taken to Sri Lanka for medical treatment.

He was granted clemency by Gayoom’s successor, Mohamed Nasheed.

Haveeru added that the four advisors – Luthufee, Ahmed Ibrahim Didi, Dr Hassan Saeed, and Ahmed ‘Topee’ Thaufeeq – are all paid MVR32,000 (US$2,077), the same as a state minister.

Earlier this week Jumhoree Party (JP) Deputy Leader and MP Abdulla Jabir criticised Waheed’s spending habits, accusing him of appointing people to new political posts with “money he does not have”.

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President Waheed meets UN Secretary General

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan yesterday met with Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon in New York.

“Today I met with UNSG Ban Ki-moon,” read the President’s official Twitter feed. “Now that transfer of power is proven legitimate, he said it is time to move ahead with the nation.”

Waheed is in New York to address the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) which opened last Tuesday.

“I will focus my address on the present treatment of smaller nations and special efforts to maintain independence and sovereignty of such nations. I will also touch on the way Maldives was treated by some of the larger countries,” he told Haveeru before his departure.

He is also reported to be attending the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) meeting which meets annually in the wings of the UNGA.

After the Commission of National Inquiry (CNI) conferred legitimacy on February’s transfer of power, the government has urged CMAG to remove the Maldives from its investigative agenda.

Opposition politicians, including former President Mohamed Nasheed, have argued that CMAG’s revised mandate warrants keeping the country on the agenda.

CMAG are scheduled to discuss the issue on September 28.

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