AG orders arrest of 2 officers in connection to Rilwan murder case

Attorney General Ibrahim Riffath has ordered Maldives Police Service to arrest two police officers in connection to the 2014 abduction and murder of journalist Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla.

The officers in question are; Mohamed Jinah (service number 4493) and Ibrahim Riffath (service number 3246).

The Attorney General issued the order under Article 133 (e) of the Maldivian Constitution.

ARTCLE 133 (E) OF MALDIVIAN CONSTITUTION:

• The Attorney General has a duty to uphold the rule of law, ensure the security of Maldivian people, and defend the interests and rights of the Maldivian people.

The Attorney General has ordered the police for an internal investigation into Jinah and Riffath, and to file for arrest warrants on the two officers with the Criminal Court on grounds their continued freedom was may impede the investigation into the case.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General has also ordered the three other police officers implicated in the case to be placed under suspension and investigated.

The Attorney General has also ordered the police to investigate MNDF officer Abdul Rauf – who the Commission on Deaths and Disappearances found to have worked at former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Gafoor’s orders to obtain Rilwan’s passport.

“I believe Rilwan case is a matter of national interest. And a matter of deep public concern,” said Riffath in an interview to Sun.

Riffath said that the findings by Commission on Deaths and Disappearances showed several police officers had been either negligent or directly involved in the case, and that several had sought to actively cover up the crime or impede the investigation.

He said that authorities have collected enough evidence prove their culpability.

Findings by the Commission on Deaths and Disappearances show officers Jinah and Riffath took bribes from former VP Adeeb and met with then-Immigration Controller Hassan Ali to obtain Rilwan's passport in order to fabricate evidence to show Rilwan hadn’t been murdered, but had voluntarily left Maldives to join a militant group in Syria.

The commission has three secret witnesses who establish that Rilwan was abducted from Hulhumale’ where he resided, forced into a car, put on board a dinghy boat, transferred to another vessel, beheaded, and his body thrown overboard in the early hours of August 8, 2014.

The commission’s findings show the Al-Qaeda branch in Maldives to be responsible for Rilwan’s abduction and murder.