Social media activist under arrest for ‘inciting fear and sowing discord’
Thayyib Shaheem, a prominent opposition social media activist, is under arrest on suspicion of sowing discord among the public with false information on social media and inciting fear and panic about the H1N1 swine flu virus.
19 Mar 2017, 9:00 AM
Thayyib Shaheem, a prominent opposition social media activist, is under arrest on suspicion of inciting fear and panic about the H1N1 swine flu virus and sowing discord among the public with false information on social media.
He was arrested around 11:50pm on Thursday from the Shabnam café in Malé. The criminal court remanded the 42-year-old to police custody for eight days on Friday.
According to his arrest form, Thayyib’s charges include raising a false alarm, a class one misdemeanour that is defined in the penal code as providing false information either about an imminent violent offence or “a situation that is serious to human life”.
The second charge is disorderly conduct under section 615 of the penal code, which is defined as “creating a hazardous, physically offensive or seriously alarming condition by an act that serves no legitimate purpose.”
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