Malé, Maldives – The Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) has decided to appeal the Criminal Court sentence against former Drug Enforcement Department Officer of Maldives Police Service, Abdul Rahman Rafeeu.
The decision was made after Rafeeu was sentenced by the court to one year, two months and 12 days in jail on homosexuality charges. Dhondhigu plead guilty to the charges raised against him after he was discovered to have had sexual relations with Bangladeshi man MD Alamgir.
Although the hearing was head behind close doors due to the nature of the charges, it has been reported by local media that the state requested Rafeeu’s sentence to be decreased by one level and make it seven months and six days, prior to the declaration of the verdict. This was because Rafeeu had plead guilty.
However, the Criminal Court declared the verdict after raising severity of the sentence by two levels. PG Office says that the Criminal Court has not revealed a reason as to why this was done, and that the sentence will be appealed in court due to this.
Alamgir, who is currently serving a jail sentence of seven months on the charges he has been indicted of, has an additional 40 charges pending trial.
Multiple individuals found to have had sexual encounters with Alamgir are being arrested and investigated, with several individuals already having had received minor sentences for the charges. This includes prominent lawyer and younger brother of Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, Ahmed Nazim Abdul Sattar, who is now serving a three month and 26 day sentence in house arrest.
