President Muizzu ruled out a referendum on the Eagle Hills project in Rasmalé as the government submitted the country’s first real estate bill to parliament. “This is not a matter on which we will hold a referendum,” he told a press conference, saying the bill protects citizens’ rights and the country’s sovereignty. The bill sets up a Property Regulatory Authority to register developers and agents, and requires payments for off-plan units to be held in escrow and released as construction progresses. It also lets the president designate “integrated real estate zones” for master-planned projects of at least 200 hectares and US$1 billion, leased for up to 99 years. Buyers from any one country could hold no more than 25 per cent of a zone.
Real estate sales to Israeli citizens or companies with any Israeli shareholding would be void. Gambling and non-Islamic places of worship are prohibited in the zones. Alcohol and pork are also banned in the zones, but lagoons within them can be reclaimed separately as tourism facilities, which would allow both as in resorts.
Property buyers in the zones would receive a fresh 99-year lease on each sale under a “surrender and re-grant” model, instead of the remainder of the previous lease. The leases would survive the expiry of the master developer’s own term. Muizzu did not address the provisions during the press conference, which ran for about an hour and 45 minutes.
Death sentences would be carried out by hanging under a bill setting out procedures for executions. A seven-member panel would issue execution orders and set dates. The Maldives Correctional Service would carry them out. Courts could not impose the sentence if the accused was denied full access to a lawyer. An execution must be postponed if the victim’s heirs file a case. Broadcasting an execution is banned.
Holders of Israeli passports would be barred from entering the Maldives unconditionally under a proposed new Immigration Act. The existing ban applies until the war in Gaza ends. The bill also bars people charged by or subject to arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court. Muizzu said an Israeli with a second nationality might be able to enter on another passport but could not invest as buyers would be screened.
Defamation would be a civil wrong with damages of up to MVR500,000 (US$32,400) under a bill on the right to protect name and reputation. It covers the media, online outlets and social media, including people who share a post, as well as cartoons, films and gestures. Truth and honest opinion based on fact are defences. Claimants must send written notice before suing, file within a year, and courts must rule within six months.
Bank of Maldives denied Russian media reports that it had suspended transfers to and from Russia, calling them “entirely false”. Kommersant reported that Russian tour operators asked Moscow to intervene after BML began returning hotel payments for Russian tourists on 18 October, with about US$2 million held up, and RBC quoted the bank’s press service as saying Russia was on a list of restricted countries. A BML spokesman said the bank had given no statement to any media outlet and had no policy restricting Russia-related payments. Correspondent banks that clear its foreign currency transactions apply their own sanctions screening and may reject or return payments, he said. Russia’s economy ministry said it had written to the Maldives tourism ministry and that talks between the two central banks would be arranged.
Reclaiming all of Rasmalé will cost the state about US$330 million (MVR5.1 billion), with about US$160 million of it for the 500 hectares earmarked for Eagle Hills, Infrastructure Minister Dr Abdulla Muththalib said at the government’s “Ahaa” forum. His January 2024 estimate of US$500 million to US$700 million was based on market rates and the cost of the previous government’s reclamation projects, he said. Costs fell because state-owned companies did the work with chartered dredgers and much of it was paid in rufiyaa to ease pressure on dollars. Muththalib dismissed higher figures as politically motivated scaremongering.
President Muizzu set up a state-owned company, the Dhiveheenge Resort Hihsaa Corporation (DRHC), to develop and run resorts whose profits the government has pledged to share with citizens. The wholly government-owned company will build an investment portfolio from the state’s lagoons and uninhabited islands, and can partner with local and foreign investors, the President’s Office said. In his presidential address in February, Muizzu promised at least 10 resorts within three years, with a substantial share of profits deposited annually in foreign currency into every citizen’s bank account. He also promised legislation to make every Maldivian a shareholder.
President Muizzu replaced the chair of the presidential commission investigating the Maldives’ handling of the maritime boundary case with Mauritius, eight days after setting it up. A decree dropped Ahmed Shakir and Abdul Azeez Yoosuf from the seven-member commission, named existing member Dr Abdul Muhsin Mohamed as chair, and appointed Captain Ahmed Zubair and former assistant prosecutor general Aishath Fazna Ahmed. The decree gave no reason for the change. The commission was formed on 1 November to examine how officials acted before and during the ITLOS case, which divided the disputed waters between the two countries in 202
A 41-year-old Maldivian man was found dead in a parked pickup in Malé. Police said it received a report of a man found unconscious in Husainee Goalhi at 9:17am. He was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
The Criminal Court remanded a 21-year-old Bangladeshi man for 15 days after he allegedly tore up his passport in an immigration holding cell at Velana International Airport, where he had been taken to be deported. Police accuse him of property damage. According to the remand order, he had been living in the Maldives in breach of immigration rules. The order said he was assessed after his behaviour suggested a mental illness, but the report found no obstacle to investigating or charging him.
