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Thursday 24 Apr 2025
LOCAL EDITION
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LOCAL EDITION
Raudh Ahmed Zilal.
The police said on Thursday that they have applied for a court warrant to arrest the man who is the last person known to have been with the young woman who had found injured on a rooftop of a warehouse in Male’ last weekend.
21-year-old Mariyam Yumnu was found injured on the rooftop of a warehouse in the Henveiru district at around 07:23 am on Friday, April 18. According to the police, their investigation uncovered that she fell from a skylight on the ninth-floor stairwell of the adjacent building, H. Fentenoy, but that there was no evidence of foul play.
But before Yumnu went to Fenetoy with Raudh, the group of nine were at Ma. Maandhooge Dhekunuge for a party, possibly with drugs and alcohol. The house in question is the family residence of Transport Minister Mohamed Ameen. Ameen has admitted that two of his nephews were among the group of individuals involved, but denied he knew anything about the “gathering.”
CCTV footage shows four of them, including Yumnu and Raudh, left the house at around 03:40 am and went to a house located in front of STELCO in Ameenee Magu at around 04:00 am. They are seen exiting the second house around 10 minutes later. Yumnu and Raudh, the former of whom was barefoot, were then seen at around 04:15 am entering H. Fentenoy, a nearby building located in Buruzu Magu, from where she fell.
Up until now, the police had declined to identify anyone other than the victim. They also made no arrests, and their search had been limited to Fentenoy, and not the other two houses.
But in a press conference led by Commissioner of Police Ibrahim Shujau on Thursday afternoon, the police said they had applied for a court warrant to arrest Raudh, and search warrants for all properties linked to the case.
The police also disclosed the names of the eight people, including Raudh, who had been with Yumnu before she fell.
According to the police, they applied for a court warrant to arrest Raudh because he wasn’t cooperating with investigators.
The police said they had also applied for warrants to force everyone to provide urine samples for drug tests, and now have no-fly orders against all eight.
They are:
According to police, Raudh and Yumnu had tried to enter the terrace of the Fentenoy, which was locked. They were then seen on CCTV getting intimate in the stairwell. Raudh is also seen taking off his t-shirt at some point and giving it to Yumnu to wear.
Police said that camera footage later appears to show them looking for each other.
However, the police said that there weren’t any cameras on the ninth floor – from where the Yumnu fell. One of the clips screened by police shows Raudh on the stairs on the eighth floor at around 04:25 am – which is the moment the police believe she fell.
Police said he rushed out of the building following unsuccessful attempts trying to find her.
Responding to speculation that Yumnu wouldn’t have landed where she did if she had fallen from the skylight, Shujau said that investigators had established that the spot where she was found is consistent with where a person would fall if they fell from the ninth-floor skylight.
Two of the people who were with Yumnu before she fell – Izdhiyaan and Yoosuf Ahmed Akram – are Ameen’s nephews. The former had been serving as the undersecretary for strategic communications at the President’s Office. But he was fired from the role earlier on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Raudh is the younger brother of Daudh Ahmed, the undersecretary for digital strategy at the President’s Office. He was suspended without pay after photos and videos emerged purportedly showing him using narcotics.
Yumnu sustained serious injuries in the fall. She was initially treated on a ventilator but was later reported to be breathing on her own. However, her condition remains serious and she is being treated in the ICU of Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).
Mounting public anger over the case prompted a large crowd of protesters, the vast majority of them young men and women, to gather outside the Sergeant Adam Haleem Criminal Investigation Building in Male’ on Wednesday night demanding justice for the young woman.
