The Health Protection Agency (HPA) stopped a night market in Rasfannu beach, less than 24 hours after reversing a previous order for the Malé City Council to shut it down due to rising covid cases. The HPA initially relented in the face of complaints over the irrevocable loss to businesses and authorised the market to go ahead in compliance with guidelines. But a lack of social distancing and mask wearing was found upon inspection, the agency said. Irate businesspeople protested at the western artificial beach the following day, complaining that it was unfair to allow other events and parties. A day later, the HPA banned gatherings of more than 50 people and disallowed spectators at sport events.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived on an official visit to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sino-Maldives diplomatic relations. He was greeted at the Velana International Airport by Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Komandoo ahead of the upcoming by-election for the constituency’s vacant parliament seat, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih announced plans to connect Komandoo with an uninhabited island in the same lagoon within the year, a pledge made during his presidential campaign to ease congestion on the northern island.
Two Maldivian men, aged 55 and 66, were arrested on human trafficking charges. The criminal court remanded the pair to 10 days in custody.
Two Bangladeshis on a boat that capsized in Vaavu Atoll were rescued after 30 hours at sea. One of the men was able to use his phone when they came within range near the LUX* resort in Alif Dhaalu Atoll. They stayed afloat by hanging on to plastic containers tied together. Coastguard and police vessels assisted by seaplanes continued to search for the missing 32-year-old Maldivian captain Adam Shafeeq.
An oil barge of the state-owned Fuel Supply Maldives ran aground on a reef near Rannaalhi resort in Kaafu atoll. Coastguard vessels were deployed to re-float the barge. The accident did not cause an oil leak.
The Prosecutor General’s office raised charges over the alleged murder of Filipino nurse Mary Grace against her husband Marvin Vargas and his Maldivian lover Haleemath Lamha. The man is accused of assaulting and strangling his wife to death in the couple’s residence in Malé after midnight on 19 October. The 24-year-old Maldivian woman was charged with aiding and abetting the murder. Mary Grace’s death had initially been reported by her husband as suicide by hanging. But suspicions of foul play prompted a police investigation and a postmortem determined that she died of head injuries. Both the victim and defendants worked at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital in the capital.
Speaker Mohamed Nasheed condemned attempts to brand him as secular or irreligious after an association of religious NGOs reported the former president’s Christmas greetings to the police. The Salafi groups contend that Christmas wishes constitute an illegal use of slogans from other religions. Nasheed, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt with a homemade bomb in May last year, asked the police to take action against allegations as their “only purpose is to put my life in danger.”
New regulations on conducting rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for Maldivian jihadi fighters who return from war zones were gazetted. The home ministry is authorised to hold returning fighters in administrative detention centres for intelligence debriefing and risk assessments. Children under 15 years can be separated from parents who are deemed to pose a risk of radicalisation and then be placed under the care of a relative.
A four-year-old boy drowned in a swimming pool in Hulhumalé’s Ocean Front Residence. He was rushed to the hospital but passed away while undergoing treatment.
Former president Abdulla Yameen’s third money laundering trial began. The opposition leader is accused of accepting a bribe to lease the island of Aarah in Vaavu Atoll for resort development. A separate trial over the lease of Raa Fuggiri island is ongoing at the criminal court. Yameen was previously found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to five years in prison. But the Supreme Court overturned the conviction last November over the prosecution’s failure to conclusively prove that US$1 million in his bank account came from stolen funds.
The Malé City Council launched a programme to plant 100,000 trees in the congested capital island.
