Malé, Maldives – Bangladeshi national MD Alamgir, who has been convicted of homosexuality in the Maldives has been charged with 40 counts of producing or distributing obscene material under.
Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) revealed today that MD Alamgir was charged with the additional counts under Article 622 of the Penal Code of Maldives.
The new charges against him comes few weeks after he was sentenced to seven months in prison by the Criminal Court for homosexuality.
Alamgir, who has been seen in leaked videos depicting explicit content of sexual nature with multiple men, was arrested on 12 June.
The first hearing of Alamgir’s trial was held in August of this year, during which he plead guilty to the charges raised against him at the the preliminary hearing. With this, the trial was escalated to the sentencing stage.
In the sentencing which was carried out as a closed door hearing, presiding Judge Ali Adam sentenced Alamgir to seven months and seven days in jail, after which he must repent.
Alamgir was among the first to be sentenced from the recent gay scandal in the country which also involves several politically significant individuals.
Criminal Court has also sentenced Nazim Sattar to three months and 26 days of house arrest after he pleaded guilty to homosexuality charges. Nazim is also the younger brother of Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed.
In addition to Nazim and Alamgir, former Nolhivaram MP Mohamed Nasheed (Colonel) and Abdul Rahman Rafeeu, a police officer working in the Drug Enforcement Department (DED) have also been charged for the same offense after their videos with MD Alamgir were leaked on social media.
Several other individuals are also being investigated, allegedly including mosque imams and teachers.
According to Commissioner of Police Mohammed Hameed, the authority had identified that 38 had homosexual relationships with Alamgiri on camera. Their cases will be sent for prosecution as their investigations are concluded, he said. Passports of 18 people identified from analyzed videos have already been seized.
