Police officer accused of attempting to bug Speaker, Deputy Speaker’s rooms

A police officer has been accused of attempting to bug rooms at the Parliament, including the room of the Parliament’s Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

At the parliamentary sitting on Monday morning, Speaker, former President Mohamed Nasheed said that it has come to his attention that an attempt has been made to bug rooms at the Parliament.

Nasheed said the attempt was brought to his attention by the Parliament’s Sergeant-at-Arms.

 “The Sergeant-at-Arms reported recently of an attempt to bug or to install recording devices at a committee room, the Parliament’s Deputy Speaker’s room, and my own. But I don’t know the purpose,” he said.

Nasheed said that it was a police officer who discussed bugging the rooms. And that the officer in question spoke of bugging the rooms with the Parliament’s security staff.

He said that the Sergeant-At-Arms was alerted to the attempt by one of the Parliament’s employee.

“The police officer was calling one of our female employees. Now, she worked for the Parliament proficiently. I thank her,” he said.

Nasheed said he does not wish to report the case to the police, and wishes for it to be handled by the Parliament itself.

“I find it will be better if the Sergeant-at-Arms does a bit more work on this. But it’s not a possibility to report this to the police. It will not be a possibility in the future either,” he said.

Nasheed has instructed the Parliament’s National Security Services Committee to look into the case.

He did not provide any further details regarding the case.