Charges against former Tourism Minister dropped

The Prosecutor General’s Office has dropped the charges against former Minister of Tourism Ali Waheed over lack of evidence.

Waheed was charged with multiple offenses, including sexual abuse and harassment against female employees during his tenure at the Ministry. In addition to these charges, he also faced allegations of genital exposure and illicit sexual communication.

During the ongoing case, the former Minister, who was in remand, requested permission to travel abroad for medical treatment. However, he failed to return as scheduled, leading to a halt in the progress of the cases against him in court.

According to a statement from the PG Office, the Criminal Court dismissed the case against Waheed and returned the documents to the office on September 22, 2022. The office had then returned the case to the Maldives Police Service on October 6, 2022, notifying the authority to resume the case upon Waheed's return to the Maldives.

The PG Office decided to drop the charges against Waheed based on the requests made by the alleged victims and witnesses. The individuals involved had requested the police to drop the case on multiple occasions, leading the authorities to request the PG office to review the case.

"Following the letters sent by the victims and witnesses addressed to both this office [PG] and the Maldives Police, we had met with all the parties involved in the case to seek their opinion," PG Office said in their statement.

While PG Office said it had investigated whether the case can move forward without the testimonies of the victims and witnesses, they concluded that the primary evidence necessary for convicting Waheed of the alleged offenses relied heavily on those testimonies. As a result, since the case could not proceed without them, the office made the decision to drop the charges against Waheed.

The former Minister also faces a jail term of two months and 12 days for his failure to attend the Supreme Court in relation to an appeal filed by the PG Office.

Since absconding from local authorities, Waheed has been residing in the UK. Despite the Maldives government's efforts to extradite him and bring him back to the country, they have not been successful thus far.