Keyodhoo mosque vandal jailed pending trial’s end

The man arrested from V. Keyodhoo earlier this week for vandalizing the local mosque and damaging copies of the Quran has been jailed pending the outcome of his trial.

The vandalism of the Keydhoo mosque was reported to police at around 11:50 pm Monday. The police arrested a suspect, identified as a 27-year-old Maldivian male, the same night.

The Keyodhoo Magistrate Court remanded him in jail pending the outcome of his trial on Tuesday.

Locals report it is not the first time for the island’s mosque to be the target of vandalism. Pages of the Quran were found torn up last Saturday. And a similar incident took place in October 2022.

However, the incidents hadn’t been linked to anyone at the time.

Keydhoo Council’s vice president Sanee Ibrahim told Sun the suspect was captured on Monday by a group of locals.

Sanee said that a young man who lived near the mosque had heard the sound of windows shattering as he came out of his home Monday night.

“He saw someone exit the mosque. He captured him and handed him over to the custody of police,” he said.

Locals later found a chair was used to break the windows of the mosque.

Sanee described the suspect as someone who was previously “well behaved”. Sanee said his behavior changed recently.

“His vision began to deteriorate. He doesn’t make sense. He began making Islamophobic comments,” he said.

Sanee said Monday’s incident had almost resulted in a mob attack, and that the suspect was transported to V. Felidhoo the same night.