'Colonel' denies molestation charges

Special Majlis Male member, Colonel Mohamed Nasheed, H. Fodhooge, denies the sexual misconduct charges placed on him by the state. Nasheed was accused of sexually molesting a young schoolboy. 

Nasheed was taken to the Criminal Court on Thursday, where the first hearing for his case was held. During the hearing, Nasheed denied the charges placed against him and claims that the accusations have political motives behind them. 

Nasheed also told the court that he would be represented by Husnu Suoodh during his trial and that he would need time to present his case. 

Nasheed was alleged to have brought one of his students at Dharmavantha School to the staff room after class hours, under the pretext of making illustrations for a book on AIDS in 2004. Nasheed was alleged to have shown the grade 10 student pictures of homosexual, pornographic nature on the internet. 

Nasheed was then said to have proceeded to show the student more websites of this nature, while implying that he had always wanted to touch the student. He is alleged to have physically made his intentions clear by touching his student in inappropriate areas. 

The student made these facts known to his peers at a café the following day, and further revealed that Nasheed had offered him Rf 1,000 in plain sight of his friend just outside the school toilet, when there were only a few students around. 

In Nasheed's statement, he clearly said that he called the student, who was an active member of the Dharmavantha's literary activities, as often as he called other students who participated in literary activities. The statement also said that Nasheed had given somewhere in between Rf 900 and Rf 1,000 to the student to buy him a pen drive. Nasheed clearly denied in his statement all allegations of any sexual misconduct towards the student. 

Nasheed's defence Husnu Suoodh told the court that the Attorney General's Office was in violation of the regulations regarding the release of information to the media. Suoodh also questioned the motives behind filing the case of an incident in 2004 two years later. 

Haveeru Daily

Nov 04, 2006

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