Charges to be brought against Dr. Shaheem

Former Minister for Islamic Affairs Dr. Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed is to be charged for providing false statements to the Presidential Commission on Deaths and Disappearances (DDCOM) and obstructing the investigation into the murder of Dr. Afrasheem in 2012.

DDCOM said that it had requested the Prosecutor General’s Office to charge Dr. Shaheem today.

Dr. Shaheem tweeted shortly that he had no connections with the murder of Dr. Afrasheem and that the charges were to obstruct his work and destroy his political future.

DDCOM’s investigative report on Dr. Afrasheem’s murder included text messages exchanged between Dr. Shaheem and Dr. Afrasheem before the murder.

Another text message received by Dr. Shaheem from an unknown person says that the party which sent the message would “love Dr. Afrasheem if he repented and announce his repentance over the media”. This message was forwarded by Dr. Shaheem to Dr. Afrasheem.

DDCOM noted in its report that Dr. Shaheem had begged ignorance of the party which sent the message when questioned by the commission.

It also noted that though Dr. Shaheem, in his written testimony to the DDCOM on July 28, 2019, denied that Dr. Afrasheem went to the Islamic Ministry to meet him on October 1, 2012 at his request, but that text messages exchanged between Dr. Shaheem and Dr. Afrasheem on that day proved that it was Dr. Shaheem who asked Dr. Afrasheem to visit him at the Islamic Ministry at 13:00 on that day.

Additional findings by DDCOM show that though Dr. Shaheem begged ignorance as to who asked Dr. Afrasheem to show up and get interviewed on a live TV show telecasted by Television Maldives (TVM) on the night on October 1, 2012, text messages exchanged between Dr. Shaheem and Dr. Afrasheem showed Dr. Shaheem made past requests to Dr. Arfasheem to appear on the TV show, and specifically asked Dr. Afrasheem to appear on the show on the night of October 1, 2012.

It also shows that though Dr. Shaheem begged ignorance as to why Dr. Afrasheem wished to appear on the TV show, text messaged exchanged between Dr. Shaheem and Dr. Afrasheem showed that Dr. Shaheem had been aware Dr. Afrasheem intended to appear on the show to publicly apologize and repent for some comments he made in the past and even offered to host a press conference at the Islamic Ministry for the same purpose if he was unable to appear on the show.

Dr. Afrasheem had been assaulted at different locations, including mosques, ahead of his murder on October 1, 2012, at the stairwell of his residence just as he returned home after appearing on the TV show. DDCOM’s findings show a jihadist group run by Mohamed Mazeed Dhafthar 471 and Samith Mohamed from Athireege, Th. Omadhoo to be responsible for Dr. Afrasheem’s murder, and Azlif Rauf from H. Hilton to have led the group of people who actively participated in the murder.

DDCOM’s findings also showed Dr. Shaheem traveled out of Maldives on the morning of October 2, 2012.

Nine Maldivian citizens traveled on a morning flight from Male’ to Qatar on October 2, 2012, all of whom were radicalized by a jihadist group run by Mazeed and Saamith and had taken part in activities run by the group in the Maldives. They had headed to Syria and Sudan.

The DDCOM also requested the PG Office to bring charges against Saamith and Mazeed yesterday.