Minister Ihusan: Netanyahu will be arrested if he travels to Maldives

Home Minister Ali Ihusan has affirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be arrested if he travels to the Maldives.

He made the remark in response to a question on social media inquiring whether Netanyahu will be arrested if he were to travel to the Maldives in line with the arrest warrant issued against the Israeli Prime by the International Criminal Court (ICC). In this regard, Minister Ihusan said Maldives will enforce the orders international courts without any exceptions.

Speaking further with Sun regarding his comments, Minister Ihusan affirmed that Maldives will enforce the arrest warrant issued against Netanyahu.

ICC issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant “for crimes against humanity and war crimes” last Thursday.

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has welcomed ICC’s decision, citing it to be a crucial step towards ensuring accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel’s genocidal offensive in Gaza recently entered its second year, having already killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and wounded over 103,000 others.

Despite the warrants, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate threat of prosecution, although it could hinder them from traveling abroad. 

Technically, if either of them were to visit any of the 122 ICC member states they must be arrested and handed over to the court. However, the Court itself has no means of enforcing such an arrest and the member state can choose not to make the arrest. 

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s cabinet made the decision to make legislative changes to ban Israeli passports on June 2. But the Parliament had already received a bill from the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), seeking a blanket ban on travelers with Israeli passports.

South Galolhu MP Meekail Ahmed Naseem’s bill, submitted on May 29, is designed to add a clause to Article 8 of Immigration Act, which lists individuals who are barred from entering the Maldives. It seeks to bar the entry of all Israeli passport holders, including those who have dual citizenship.

Following the cabinet’s decision, the main ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) – which holds supermajority – decided to accept the bill into the Parliament, and make the changes the government wanted during the committee stage. But the work on the bill would remain stalled for the next months as a result of which the government had come under intense scrutiny.

While the Committee now reviews the bill – PNC lawmakers’ tune on the matter has completely shifted. In this regard, the Committee has expressed opposition to implementing a blanket ban on all Israeli passport holders though the original cabinet decision in June had been to implement such a change.

In this regard, the Committee discussed consulting with relevant stakeholders, including tourism sector representatives, and obtaining necessary statistics ahead of a decision.