A fire broke out at an accommodation block in Gulhifalhu, injuring 73 workers from the Thilamalé bridge developer Afcons Infrastructure. The fire was put out nearly an hour and a half after it was reported at 12:31 a.m.
According to the military’s fire and rescue service, 13 people were taken to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Malé, 60 people to the Tree Top hospital in Hulhumalé and none of the injuries were life-threatening. But the police later informed the media that six people were undergoing treatment for serious injuries.
The accommodation block was completely destroyed. Some 465 workers lived in the labour quarters on the industrial island. Afcons was reported to have arranged accommodation.
On Saturday morning, Afcons workers protested in Gulhifalhu over the failure to locate a truck driver who has been missing since the fire incident. But a body was not found at the site.
A 52-year-old local man died of injuries sustained in an accident on the Hulhumalé bridge highway after a motorcycle collided with a car.
The previous government allowed six suspects in the abduction of journalist Ahmed Rilwan in August 2014 to flee for Syria, the presidential commission on deaths and disappearances told the press after presenting the final report of their findings to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
Rilwan was forced into a car at knifepoint outside his apartment building in Hulhumalé and taken out to sea on a dinghy, after which he was beheaded and the body was sunk, the commission concluded after a four-year-long investigation.
A key suspect, Mohamed Munaz, was alleged to have met then-president Abdulla Yameen in 2017 and told him how Rilwan was killed. The president then helped him leave for Syria, the commission alleged, citing witness testimony. Along with five other suspects, Munaz is said to have died fighting with militant groups in Iraq and Syria. The commission also alleged ties between top officials of Yameen’s administration and extremists or radicalised gangs.
After the commission’s press briefing, the opposition denounced the new allegations as a politically motivated attempt to undermine Yameen’s 2023 re-election bid. The opposition leader has decided to sue commission member Misbah Abbas for defamation, his legal team announced.
The commission also found that the police had obtained a court warrant to intercept Rilwan’s phone conversations four months before the enforced disappearance. Police intelligence had been aware of threats to his life from Maldivian jihadis overseas and a vigilante group that were targeting suspected atheists and freethinkers in Malé. But they failed to either protect him or alert him to the imminent danger.
The extremist group behind Rilwan’s abduction was affiliated with al-Qaeda, the commission previously revealed. The same group “organised and financed” blogger Yameen Rasheed’s murder in April 2017 as well as the attempted murder of blogger Ismail Khilath Rasheed and the assassination of lawmaker Dr Afrasheem Ali in 2012. They also destroyed pre-Islamic relics at the National Museum amid the transfer of power on 7 February 2012.
The terrorism trial of three suspects arrested in late June following a breakthrough by the presidential commission is meanwhile ongoing with closed-door hearings at the criminal court.
Newly-elected members of the Maldives Media Council – a 15-member regulatory body for print and online media – held their first meeting and commenced the handover process.
Ahmed Mustafa, technical manager at the state broadcaster Public Service Media corporation, was elected president for the new term with Hussain Shareef, deputy editor of Vaguthu, as the vice president.
Backed by the International Federation of Journalists, the NGO Maldives Journalists Association expressed concern with the election of “an official representing government-controlled” state media, which it warned could undermine the self-regulatory mechanism due to the potential for state interference or undue influence.
Teachers from the Ghaazee School protested against the education ministry’s failure to take action against alleged corruption by the Huhumalé school’s administrator Aishath Shiyaza, who was temporarily transferred to a department at the ministry earlier this month. She is accused of embezzlement, forging leave certificates and abusing authority for financial gain.
The education ministry assured action against complicit officials.
Citing rising costs such as higher prices of medical consumables, the privately-owned ADK hospital confirmed plans to gradually increase prices by 15 to 20%.
A doctor’s consultation fee has been increased from MVR150 (US$10) to MVR200. The consultation fee for specialists doctors is up from MVR300 to MVR500.
The price hikes drew criticism as ADK was developed on prime public land in Malé. The monthly rent for the 65,322 square feet plot was reported to be MVR718,000.
Former foreign minister Dhunya Maumoon was questioned by the anti-graft watchdog in connection with a corruption scandal in which US$90 million was stolen through the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation during the previous administration.
“I helped the Anti-Corruption Commission to clear my name in relation to the lies said about me in order to politically persecute me! I wish them luck in bringing the real culprits of the MMPRC case to justice!” she tweeted.
Dunya is accused of receiving MVR200,000 (US$12,970) from stolen resort acquisition payments.
Migrant workers employed by local construction company Jaah Investment – formerly Jausa – continued to protest over unpaid wages. The workers, who were hired to build an apartment complex in Hulhumalé, staged a sit-in protest at the Central Park until they were dispersed by the police.
Workers from India and Indonesia say they have not been paid for months and accused the company of illegally withholding their passports, preventing many from returning to their countries. Complaints have reportedly been filed with immigration and the Labour Relations Authority.
The Gaaf Alif Maamendhoo island council held a meeting at the beach to bring worsening erosion to the government’s attention. If erosion continues at the current rate, the council fears beachfront homes in the area would have to be abandoned next year. But the government has not responded to repeated requests for a coastal protection project.
A local man arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife was found hanged inside his cell at the Kulhudhuffushi police station. Abu Bakuru Faisal, 32, was rushed to the regional hospital, where he remains on a ventilator in critical condition. Human rights and police watchdogs have launched probes into the failure to prevent the suicide attempt.
Faisal’s wife, Nishama Mohamed, 28, was found on Saturday with bruises on her neck in her native Haa Dhaal Nolhivaram. She was declared dead on arrival at the island’s health centre. Earlier in the day, Faisal travelled to Kulhudhuffushi and turned himself in to the police.
According to media reports, family members and neighbours witnessed quarrels and physical abuse both when the couple lived in Faisal’s native Alif Dhaal Fenfushi and after they moved to Nolhivaram with their three young children. But domestic violence was never reported to the authorities.
The World Health Organisation donated two ambient air quality monitoring stations to be set up in Hulhumalé. The systems will measure air pollutions levels, including particulate matter and carbon dioxide.
President Solih pledged to solve challenges faced by fishers by mid-2023. Concerns and grievances shared with the president during a meeting with fisherfolk on Faresmaathoda included delayed payments from the government company and difficulties in buying fuel and ice.
Successive governments have failed to keep pace as the fisheries industry developed with larger vessels and increased catch, the president conceded, highlighting “ongoing projects to upgrade and increase the capacity of fish processing plants.”
The president travelled to the southern island to join official events to mark the 42nd annual Fishermen’s Day.
In his speech at the main function, the president “revealed plans to dedicate 270 tonne storage capacity and 120 tonne brine freezing capacity to Huvadhu Atoll next year” and pledged arrangements for low-cost or credit purchase of fuel supplies. Awards and certificates were presented to the ‘Youngest Fishermen’ as well as the three vessels that sold the highest volumes and the three companies that bought the most raw fish.
During the trip, the president also toured a Fisheries Expo and launched new canned tuna products introduced by Horizon Fisheries and the state-owned Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company.
A local man was found guilty of rape and sentenced to 15 years in prison. An additional five-year sentence was handed down on a separate charge of blackmail.
Yoosuf Husham was arrested on charges of raping a woman in October 2019 after threatening to post her photos on Facebook.
In an unrelated case, a father was arrested from a southern island on suspicion of sexually abusing his 11-year-old daughter.
