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Saturday, June 14, 2014

Human rights and wrongs – The Weekly Review

June 7th – 13th A series of attacks and abductions in the capital Malé this week brought concern and condemnation from politicians and human rights stakeholders. The incidents, understood to have been part of a vigilante campaign against supporters of atheism and homosexuality, have yet to provoke a response from the government. Reports emerged of groups having previously expressed their concern regarding the publication of content offensive to Islam. While the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) voiced concerns at the reports of the physical assault and threatening of multiple individuals last weekend, the vice president of the Human Rights Commission urged the state to reassure the public of their safety. Minivan News spoke with previous victims of online threats turned into...

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

How serious are cyber death threats?

In July 2009, blogger Hilath Rasheed broke news of an underage girl being kept as a concubine on his blog. Soon afterwards, he started receiving death threats online. He was accused of being an infidel and anonymous commenters sent him messages warning him against walking in dark alleyways. They threatened to slash his throat and behead him. Two years later, in June 2012, three men ambushed Hilath in a dark alleyway leading up to his apartment block, slashed his throat and left him for dead. Recalling the events today, Hilath told Minivan News he had not taken cyber death threats seriously before the fatal attack. He had also suffered...

Human Rights Commission VP calls for state response to abductions

Human Rights Commission (HRCM) Vice President Ahmed Tholal has called for an immediate state response to reports of a series of vigilante attacks in the capital over recent days. “The concern to me is that there needs to be a state response to state very clearly that we cannot just start labelling people un-Islamic as it’s a very dangerous thing,” said Tholal. After multiple accounts of the abductions and assault of individuals perceived to be supportive of atheism or homosexuality, the HRCM plans to meet with state representatives in order to determine the cause for these events. “I think the issue of safety of paramount. We’re not...

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Perceived atheists and homosexuals targetted as campaign of attacks continues

Government employee, Adam Ghafoor*, was attacked on Sunday in a Malé cafe by a group of eight men accusing him and his friends of homosexuality and atheism. ‘You homosexual atheists are destroying our country – we will not stand back and watch you do it,’ Adam reported the group as saying. After being accused of being atheists, Adam asked the men to leave, prompting his interrogators to launch an attack – raining blows on him as onlookers watched without offering assistance. Details of this attack follow further reports received by Minivan News today of abductions made by a vigilante mob attempting to identify online activists advocating...

Man sentenced to 14 years in jail for molesting a 16 year old boy

The Criminal Court has sentenced a man to 14 years in jail for molesting a 16-year-old boy. Ahmed Ibrahim, 38, of Lhaviyani Atoll Naifaru Island, was caught in a Malé City guesthouse with the boy in September 2012. The Maldives Police Services say Ibrahim has a previous record of homosexuality and child abuse. In 2002, Ibrahim was sentenced to nine months banishment and 15 lashes in public for homosexuality, the police said. While serving his sentence on Alif Alif Atoll Thoddoo Island, Ibrahim was caught sexually abusing another 16-year-old boy. In 2009, Ibrahim was again accused of molesting two male minors in Malé, police said. Reports...

Monday, June 9, 2014

Vigilante mobs abduct young men in push to identify online secular activists

Vigilante mobs have abducted and interrogated several young men in Malé City in a push to identify online activists advocating secularism or professing atheism, Minivan News has learned.Eyewitnesses told Minivan News the young men were taken to isolated locations in Malé City in separate incidents in recent days.A vigilante mob interrogated them on the identities of administrators of Facebook groups advocating secularism and atheism in the Maldives.Minivan News understands the abductions are also related to the hijacking of a Facebook group called ‘Colorless’ on Sunday.The group has 4,865 members and was set up with in the wake of February...

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Maldivian asylum seekers assured of prosecution upon return, says President’s Office

Maldivians seeking asylum abroad on grounds of religion or sexuality can be assured of prosecution should they return, says the President’s Office. “The threat from the state they speak of is in actuality our law and regulations. That will not change,” President’s Office Spokesman Ibrahim Muaz explained. Muaz’s comments come in response to a story in the New Zealand media that a homosexual Maldivian asylum seeker has become an prize-winning drag queen in Wellington. Abraham Naim told the Dominion Post that he had been granted asylum in 2013 after facing persecution in the Maldives. The article quotes New Zealand’s Ministry of Business,...

Gay refugee wins drag pageant

OUT AND PROUD: Abraham Naim as hisdrag queen alter ego Medulla Oblongata. A refugee crowned Wellington's top drag queen expects hate mail after wearing a gold burqa as he stripped on stage, discarding a head-to-toe Muslim woman's robe. Abraham Naim, who goes by the drag stage name Medulla Oblongata, won the Miss Capital Drag pageant in Wellington on Sunday night. Last year he was granted asylum in New Zealand because of the persecution he faced being gay in the Maldives where the official religion is Islam. "I'm definitely in a better place now," he said. In its decision to grant Naim refugee status last November, the Ministry...

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