Parliament Speaker and former President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed's brother, Nazim Abdul Sattar, has been arrested over leaked homosexual videos.
A few weeks ago, videos of a man alleged to be Nazim engaging in sexual relations with a 25-year-old Bangladeshi national, MD Alamgiri, were leaked on social media platforms. Nazim was summoned to the police and questioned regarding the video, and his passport was later withheld in connection to the case.
Similar videos of several other people engaging in sexual acts with the same Bangladeshi man were leaked one after the other, including a 30-minute clip of a Drug Enforcement Department police officer. The police have been investigating the case and recently concluded the preliminary stage of the investigation. As per the police, enough evidence to incriminate those seen in the videos has been collected, and a special operation has been launched to arrest those involved in the videos. The police said a 35-year-old local man and a 45-year-old local man were arrested in the operation.
On Thursday, Nazim was arrested while at a resort in Alif Alif atoll. According to some sources, Nazim traveled to the resort after a court order was issued to arrest him. Some reports state that he stopped at another resort before traveling to the resort in Alif Alif atoll. A senior police officer confirmed to AVAS that Nazim surrendered to the police without resistance when the police when to the resort to arrest him. Therefore, the police did not have to enter the resort.
Nazim's arrest was followed by a tweet from President Nasheed alleging that Nazim was arrested to appease hardline extremists in President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's government.
In the tweet posted in English, Nasheed said Nazim was selectively targeted at arrested on homosexuality charges. He said his brother was arrested in violation of criminal procedure, although Nazim was taken into police custody under a court order.
President Nasheed further said that Nazim was arrested for political purposes under the influence of the government. He also accused the government of doing so to appease the hardliners in the government, referring to the ruling coalition partner, the religiously conservative Adhaalath Party.
While Nasheed's tweet suggests that there was influence over the police investigation, the police have denied the allegations.
