46 cases of sexual offenses filed with court amid lockdown

Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem, on Tuesday, announced his office filed charges with the Criminal Court in connection to 46 cases of sexual offenses amid the lockdown in the capital.

Shameem shared the statistics on sexual offense cases filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office amid the lockdown on Twitter.

According to the statics, the highest number of sexual offense cases during the lockdown was filed in May, with 28 cases. The figure is nearly double the 15 cases filed in April. Meanwhile, three sexual offense cases have been filed with the court so far this June.

The offenses include exploiting children to commit a crime, asking for sexual favors, entering a property to commit a sexual act, sexual assault, and attempted sexual assault.

Shameem said the average age of the suspects charged with sexual offenses is 35 years.

And on average, it takes Maldives Police Service 88 days to investigate and send cases of sexual offenses to the Prosecutor General’s Office, and an average of 2.6 days for the Prosecutor General’s Office to file charges in connected to the cases with the court.

“We do get involved in inv[estigative] stage so we already have access to documents. Still a remarkable achievement!” said Shameem.

The role of the police and the prosecution in response to sexual offenses has come under increased scrutiny with the increase in cases of sexual offenses amid the lockdown. It includes the rape of an 11-year-old girl in a guesthouse in Male’ City on June 10, and the rape of a girl under the age of 16 years in another guesthouse in Male’ City on May 28.