Guest House Association's chairperson resigns

Chairman of Guest House Association (GAM), Moosa Nasih has resigned from the post.

Nasih issued a statement late Tuesday night after resigning from the post. In the statement, he said a case of sexual assault in a work environment was submitted to the governing board of the association on June 23. Once the case was forwarded to the governing committee after an internal committee investigated it, the governing committee said that there were no grounds to further pursue the matter.

Nasih said sexual assault allegations have to be investigated seriously, and alleged that some members of GAM were trying to block the investigation of the complaint, and attempted to exert influence to delay the case. The reason for his resignation from GAM was the association's attempts to obstruct the case, said Nasih.

“My conscience does not believe that this is how such cases must be dealt with. Action should be taken; [the lack of it] is why I resigned,” said Nasih.

It has been reported that the GAM member who is said to have carried out the alleged acts of misconduct is GAM's board member and Secretary General, Saudulla Ahmed. Saudulla is a member of the main ruling party, Maldives Democratic Party’s (MDP)'s National Council. Although some influential members on GAM's board had attempted to halt the investigation being carried out by the Internal Affairs Committee of GAM, Saudulla was suspended late Tueday.