New Maldives president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Thursday ratified the motion passed by the parliament to repeal the controversial defamation law.
The contentious defamation law was passed in 2016 by the government controlled parliament despite widespread criticism, criminalising speech deemed to be defamatory, to comment against “any tenet of Islam”, to “threaten national security” or to “contradict general social norms”.
Those committing an offence under the law can face fines and failure to pay the fine will result in jail sentence of three to six months.
Parliament last week repealed the law with the backing of 38 lawmakers while 13 MPs voted against.
The move came after president Solih had vowed to repeal the defamation law within the first 100 days of his government.
