date_range
Tuesday 05 Nov 2024
LOCAL EDITION
close
LOCAL EDITION
Maldives Police Service briefs the press on the murder of Mohamed Zayan Moosa, 21, Solid, S. Feydhoo, on October 19, 2022. (Sun Photo/Muaviyath Anwar)
Police, on Wednesday, stated that Mohamed Zayan Moosa, 21, Solid, S. Feydhoo – who was fatally stabbed in a gang fight in June – identified his assailants before he died.
Zayan was stabbed multiple times in a gang fight that broke out in Addu's Feydhoo district at approximately 03:00 am on June 1.
He died a couple of hours after he was taken to the Addu Equatorial Hospital.
Prosecutor General’s Office (PG Office) filed charges against four minors arrested in connection to the case on October 9.
In a press conference Wednesday, Head of Death and Homicide Investigation Unit, Inspector of Police Mohamed Samih said a severely injured Zayan had been home when the police arrived at the scene, and provided vital information.
“The police there questioned him to clarify the situation. Zayan talked about how he was attacked and about his assailants,” he said.
Samih said the attack was preplanned, and was part of a serious of fights between two rival gangs in Feydhoo.
Zayan was killed in a retaliatory attack, he said.
“The attack on Zayan was preplanned. Some of the assailants sneaked into Zayan’s home at midnight, spied on him, and attacked him with sharp-edged weapons,” he said.
Samih said that that Zayan climbed to the first floor of his home to escape his assailants, where he collapsed.
Total 11 suspects were arrested in the case, including the four minors charged with murder.
The identities of the adults arrested in the case were released Wednesday. They are:
Samih said the six suspects between ages 22 and 34 years had been involved in planning and organizing to have Zayan killed using the four minors.
Samih said the four minors, aged 15-18 years, and Yaish had also been involved in destroying the evidence.
“The investigation has uncovered evidence they set a fire to destroy some of the weapons used in the attack.”
Samih said CCTV footage shows the assailants fleeing after the attack and destroy evidence, and that some of the forensic evidence collected from the scene matches with the DNA of one of the suspects arrested in the case.
“The investigation uncovered that while the assailants had been at Solid, the people who planned the attack were at a café in S. Feydhoo coordinating the attack between 00:00 and 01:00 hours, up until the attack,” he said.
Samih said investigators had found phone records to back it, including records of phone calls between one of the people at the café and one of the assailants.
South Police Division’s Head, Superintendent of Police Ahmed Shameem noted that allegations were made on social media and the press against some police officers in the early stages of the investigation.
He said the allegations were investigated by the Police Professional Standards, which found no evidence to back the allegations.
