Allegations against MDP candidate dismissed as smear campaign

Hisaan Hussain, a heavyweight lawyer and Maldivian Democratic Party candidate for parliament, has dismissed allegations of abuse that emerged Wednesday as a smear campaign by a rival for the Thulhaadhoo constituency seat.

In a letter sent to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, a man from the Thulhaadhoo island accused Hisaan of harassing and mistreating himself and four others – including two children aged 10 and 16 years- when they lived in her house in Malé several years ago.

The man accused Hisaan of cutting electricity and water to their room for 15 days, throwing a brick through a fanlight and repeatedly breaking the lock to their room. 

The identities of the alleged victims were revealed in the letter. They were purportedly living in Hisaan’s house while studying in the capital.

He claimed that Hisaan’s father Sheikh Hussain Yousuf had repeatedly advised her to cease the alleged abuse.

“But Hisaan refused to listen and eventually threw us out of the house and left us homeless,” he alleged, adding that the case had also been reported to police.

He called on the MDP to withdraw support for Hisaan, citing the party leadership’s decision earlier this week to withdraw support for a candidate who was accused of domestic violence.

The letter is circulating on social media.

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Hisaan flatly denied committing any of the acts described in the letter.

She accused a senior official of her opponent Ibrahim Afeef’s campaign team of concocting the claims.

Afeef is running as a candidate backed by former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s Maldives Reform Movement, one of the four parties in the MDP-led coalition.

Coming to Hisaan’s defence, former president Mohamed Nasheed has called the allegations part of “an organised political activity to defame her” and condemned the “coward and lowly act.”

Hisaan, who represented the former president in his terrorism trial, “has my complete confidence,” Nasheed tweeted.