Arson and death threats ahead of UN visit
Ruling party and opposition supporters blamed each other for the fire.
25 Mar 2018, 9:00 AM
A ruling party meeting hall was set alight Sunday and an opposition MP was the subject of violent death threats at a public rally, as a United Nations team arrived in the Maldives to try and defuse tension after weeks of political turmoil.
Ibrahim Yoosuf, from the Progressive Party of the Maldives, said two men on a motorbike arrived at the Rumaalu 2 meeting hall in the capital at around 4:20 am. One threatened a security guard and went inside the venue, where he set the stage on fire.
“At first he tried to go up to the office, but couldn’t because there was a locked gate,” he told the Maldives Independent. “So he started a fire on the stage in our meeting area on the ground floor.”
The fire burned down the stage, a table, a podium and lights, Yoosuf said. It was put out by the security guard after the man left.
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