Man Jailed For 10 Years Over Death Threats to Former President Nasheed

The Criminal Court has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for issuing death threats on social media against former president and former Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed.

The court on Wednesday sentenced Ismail Yaafis, of H. Lightnight in Malé, over threats he made in 2021 on various social media platforms. Prosecutors said he threatened to kill Nasheed while the former president was overseas recovering from injuries sustained in the 6 May 2021 bomb attack that targeted him. According to the verdict, he had been posting extremist content and messages supporting terrorism on social media since 2020.

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Although Yaafis later retracted his statements during the police investigation and again during the trial, the court found him guilty on all three charges brought against him. He was convicted of supporting a terrorist organisation, threatening to carry out a terrorist act, and aiding and abetting an act of terrorism.

He received two years’ imprisonment for supporting a terrorist organisation, three years for threatening to carry out a terrorist act, and five years for aiding an act of terrorism. 

Nasheed, who was Speaker of the Majlis at the time, was seriously injured in an assassination attempt on 6 May 2021, when an improvised explosive device planted on a motorcycle detonated as he was about to get into his car outside his home in Malé. 

Doctors carried out multiple operations to treat shrapnel injuries, and Nasheed was later flown abroad for further medical treatment before returning to the Maldives and resuming his political duties.

Authorities described the bombing as a terrorist attack linked to extremism, and several suspects were arrested in its aftermath. Multiple terrorism-related cases connected to the 6 May attack are still moving through the courts, with key trials facing delays and remaining unresolved.