Bank of Maldives launched a new US dollar investment service allowing customers to earn returns by investing dollars that the bank uses to fund fee-generating commercial activities, including card transactions. CEO Mohamed Shareef, unveiling the service at a "Chat with CEO" event for media partners at Hotel Jen, said investors would receive dollars exchanged at the official central bank rate plus a 25 percent return in Rufiyaa, an effective rate of MVR 19.30 per dollar, while helping the bank sustain essential banking services amid dollar liquidity constraints.
Parliament's '241' security services committee voted to amend the regulation governing VIP security provided to former presidents to exclude protection when they are participating in protests, with PNC members backing the change proposed by MP Abdulla Shareef and MDP, MNP and an independent member voting against. The reasons for the change were unclear as the meeting was held behind closed doors, but the move comes as former presidents Mohamed Nasheed, Abdulla Yameen and Ibrahim Mohamed Solih have formed an alliance against the government, with Nasheed and Solih occasionally joining MDP street protests.
Sources told Adhadhu that the 241 committee amended the regulation on suspending VIP protection for former presidents during protests without consulting the military, despite some committee members urging consultation given the military's role in providing that security. Sources said the move's intent was to deter former President Mohamed Nasheed from attending protests.
HPA said 44 new measles cases were recorded last week, all in Malé, bringing the total since the outbreak began last month to 66. The disease, eliminated from the Maldives nine years ago, has prompted an MMR vaccination drive for under-30 year olds and healthcare workers, with HPA urging anyone with fever and a rash to seek care promptly while wearing a mask and avoiding public transport.
Tourism Minister Mohamed Ameen told parliament the government's target is to keep this year's tourist arrivals from falling below last year's, despite Middle East conflict-related disruptions that caused a roughly 25 percent year-on-year drop in arrivals in March and April due to the sector's heavy reliance on Middle Eastern airlines. He said arrivals have since improved through measures including concessions for airlines and efforts to secure alternative routes bypassing Middle Eastern airports, with the Maldives reaching its one-millionth tourist for the year on June 20, later than last year's first-week-of-June milestone.
Ameen told parliament that Hanimaadhoo Airport, redeveloped under the previous government and opened under this one, was not built to handle wide-body aircraft capable of long-haul routes to destinations like China, after MDP MP Abdul Gafoor Moosa asked why such routes weren't being operated from there. Ameen said the airport's 2.46km runway and new terminal were designed for narrow-body aircraft like the A320 and Boeing 737, and that operating widebody jets like the A330, A340 or 777 would require redevelopment.
Ameen also told parliament that using state budget support for major investments like Maldivian's wide-body operations is not unusual and is standard practice elsewhere, declining to confirm whether the operations were behind Island Aviation's shift from a self-sustaining company to one requiring budget support since the third quarter of last year. He said the widebody fleet, launched in January 2025, has carried 67,000 passengers in 16 months, including 55,000 tourists, on routes to China, Australia, Jeddah for Hajj and Umrah, and India's Trivandrum and Kochi.
Parliament approved Mohamed Shakeel, the ruling PNC's former registrar, as Elections Commission president in a 51-8 vote, a week after President Muizzu appointed him to the commission. The appointment of a politically affiliated figure to the independent body drew earlier public criticism. Shakeel, who also served on the EC under former President Yameen, resigned as Hajj Corporation managing director before joining the commission, filling the presidency vacated by Mohamed Zahid's resignation in May.
The Criminal Court convicted four people over a month-long kidnapping in which a man, Abdulla Rajeeh, was held captive, beaten and had a finger amputated with a pipe cutter over an unpaid drug debt, relying on Rajeeh's initial police statement and CCTV and forensic evidence after he recanted in court and no prosecution witnesses cooperated. Ali Sameer, who ordered the amputation, was sentenced to 10 years, Ahmed Saif Waheed, who carried it out, got 15 years, and Mohamed Naushaan, who held Rajeeh down, received ten years, while MNDF member Ahmed Zayaan was convicted of failing to help despite knowing of the abuse and given a three-month sentence already served. A second MNDF member, Mohamed Nafaah, was acquitted of heating the cutter used in the amputation.
The Infrastructure ministry called for bids to provide consultancy services to design Rasmalé and prepare its master plan, with proposals due by July 13. The scope includes baseline studies, an urban development framework and a land use plan, with the ministry requiring strategies aligned with carbon neutrality and minimal environmental impact. Rasmalé, built on reclaimed Fushidhiggaru lagoon, was launched in December 2023 and is planned as a zero-carbon city connected to Male' by an undersea tunnel.
The High Court upheld the Criminal Court's 2023 ruling sentencing Adhuham Mohamed to death for the December 2019 murder of taxi driver Gasim Hassan in Hulhumalé, finding evidence of premeditation including his purchase of a knife capable of easily cutting through flesh. The bench, led by Judge Deebanaz Fahmy, rejected Adhuham's claims that police forced him to confess under the influence of drugs, finding no evidence to support it. As a capital sentence requiring three-tier review, the case must now also be appealed to the Supreme Court by the state.
A 16-year-old boy who fell from the first floor of a building at the newly occupied Amaandhoadhi flats in Hulhumale Phase 2 last Tuesday night has been taken off a ventilator and moved to a ward at IGMH, hospital officials told Mihaaru. He sustained a broken thigh bone, badly swollen knee, fractured facial bones and a split chin, though a brain CT scan showed no internal bleeding. The cause of the fall remains unknown and police are investigating.
