Two journalists in the Maldives have been sentenced to jail after reporting on a documentary alleging an extramarital affair involving President Mohamed Muizzu, drawing sharp condemnation from press freedom organizations around the world, according to Al Jazeera.
Mohamed Shahzan and Leevan Ali Nasir, both of whom work for the news website Adhadhu, were sentenced by the criminal court in the capital, Male, on Tuesday. Shahzan received 15 days in jail and Nasir received 10 days.
The case centers on a documentary titled "Aisha," released on Adhadhu's social media accounts on March 28. The film featured an anonymized interview with a woman who claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Muizzu, 47, a married father of three. Muizzu has dismissed the allegations as "baseless lies."
According to Adhadhu, Shahzan was jailed after questioning Muizzu about late-night calls he had allegedly made to a former presidential aide. Nasir was jailed for reporting on a gag order that the criminal court issued on Monday at the request of prosecutors. That order, published on the court's website, bans any direct or indirect discussion of the allegations and cites constitutional provisions protecting the right to reputation.
The trials were conducted in secret and concluded within hours. The journalists were given just two hours to find legal counsel and no opportunity to present a defense. Adhadhu said: "For the first time in our democratic history, journalists have been jailed for challenging the most powerful man in the nation."
Police had raided Adhadhu's offices in April following the documentary's release, seizing laptops belonging to journalists, marketing staff, and administrators, along with hard drives and pen drives.
The International Federation of Journalists on Wednesday "strongly condemned" the jailings. The Committee to Protect Journalists described the sentences as a "punitive attempt to criminalise investigative journalism."
Muizzu's spokesperson, Mohamed Hussain Shareef, rejected the criticism and said any "attempts at portraying the criminal proceedings as an attack on free press are unwarranted and politically motivated."
