Yameen’s father appeals for foreign involvement in murder probe

“I don’t trust the police investigation,” Hussain Rasheed, 54, told the foreign press in Colombo on Friday.

Despite claiming to have identified two suspects, the police have yet to make any arrests a week after the 29-year-old was found with multiple stab wounds in the stairway of his apartment building.

Yameen’s father said the police had acted suspiciously after the murder by washing the crime scene, repainting the blood-spattered wall, and preventing anyone from taking photographs.

The police also failed to seriously investigate several complaints Yameen had lodged about receiving death threats, he added.

Yameen was threatened from radicalised local gangs for speaking out against rising Islamic radicalism, Rasheed said, calling on the government to invite international experts to join the investigation.

Superintendent Ahmed Shifan told the Maldives Independent that “the investigation is being carried out with international assistance,” but refused to comment any further.

Asked about the delay in arresting suspects, the police spokesman said there have been new developments since the media was briefed last Tuesday.

“I assure you that we are very dedicated to this and that it is a very intensive investigation. It is our top priority and all our resources have been mobilised,” he said.

Yameen’s report about death threats was “very circumstantial,” Shifan said, but the police investigated the complaints.

“But Yameen Rasheed expressed on social media that he was not satisfied with the amount or extent of work that we did regarding the matter,” he added.

“Until very recently we have been working on a case he had filed from 2014. Two people were questioned. I cannot reveal if any arrests were made because all cases related to Yameen Rasheed have now been included in his murder investigation.”

The police will update the media “as soon as possible, at the time seen as best for the investigation,” he said.

Online paper VFP reported today that the police have told Yameen’s family that the suspects caught on security camera cannot be identified because they were in disguise.

Contrary to claims by Assistant Commissioner of Police Abdulla Nawaz at a press briefing last week where he released photos, the police reportedly told the family the identity of the two suspects remains unknown.

Nawaz’s press conference was called after the opposition-aligned Raajje TV obtained footage from a private security camera near Yameen’s residence in the Maafanu ward of Malé.

Three days after Yameen’s murder, newspaper Mihaaru meanwhile reported that Chief Superintendent Mohamed Riyaz, a top police detective who was leading the murder investigation, was transferred to the commissioner’s bureau.