Maldives Stabbing of human rights lawyer Mahfooz Saeed
On 4 September 2015, human rights lawyer Mahfooz Saeed was attacked by two unidentified men in Malé. During the attack, he sustained stab wounds on one side of his head. This was reported by frontline defenders on their website.
Mahfooz Saeed is a human rights lawyer and member of the legal team for former president Mohamed Nasheed, who was convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2015, following proceedings which did not meet international standards for fair trial. In his blogs Mahfooz Saeed speaks critically about the shortcomings of the Maldives judicial system, escalating crime rate and deteriorating socio-political situation, and calls for judicial reform in the country.
The attack on Mahfooz Saeed happened one week after Saeed spoke critically of the current government at a Maldivian Democratic Party rally, and a week before members of former president Nasheed’s international legal team travelled to the Maldives to meet the former president.