Maldives police raid media offices after Al-Jazeera documentary accuses president of graft

Police in the Maldives raided the offices of a local media organisation just hours after a documentary aired accusing President Abdulla Yameen and his government of corruption, journalists said on Thursday.

Police searched the seven-storey building housing the Maldives Independent website whose editor was quoted in the Al-Jazeera documentary aired on Wednesday night detailing high-level graft allegations.

“We believe the search was part of an attempt at intimidation,” a Maldives independent journalist told AFP. “They looked at rooms and even the toilets, but took only a broken CCTV unit.”

There was no immediate comment from the police.

The documentary is the latest twist in a protracted political crisis that has dented the Indian Ocean archipelago’s reputation as an upmarket holiday destination and raised international alarm about an erosion of democracy.

Al-Jazeera said the documentary was based on data including emails and text messages it had obtained between key officials of Yameen’s administration allegedly implicating them in graft and other criminal activity.

The editor of the Maldives Independent left the country before the documentary aired, fearing the government would slap charges against her under a tough defamation law.