A close aide of the Maldives president has been under arrest for nearly three weeks on suspicion of using black magic against the first couple.
Former State Minister for Environment Fathmath Shamnaz is accused of performing sorcery or black magic to seduce President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, local media reported in late June, fueling salacious speculation on social media and drawing bemused international media attention.
“The president and his family have not reported any such case about anyone to the police,” an exasperated government spokeswoman said in response to queries from journalists. Media reports linking the first family to the arrests were “untrue and false news,” Heena Waleed, chief spokesperson of the Maldives President’s Office posted on X, formerly Twitter, on July 1.
But the case involves sorcery or black magic against Muizzu and First Lady Sajidha Mohamed, the police confirmed, refusing to divulge any further details.
Shamnaz and her sister Hawwa Sana Saleem were arrested on June 23 along with an alleged practitioner of black magic enlisted by the siblings.
The male suspect — identified by the media as Hussain Sameer from Thaa Kinbidhoo island — was released after a week. But police sought to keep Shamnaz and Sana in custody. At their last remand hearing on July 8, the Criminal Court granted an extension of detention for five more days.
The women were arrested after police raided their apartment in Malé. A search warrant authorized the seizure of phones, computers and “any device that can store digital data,” local outlet Adhadhu reported.
Other items collected as evidence included a woolen plush doll and a lock of hair found in Sana’s room, an unnamed source told Adhadhu.
The police accused Shamnaz and Sana of paying Sameer on several occasions to perform “sorcery and black magic to split up a couple and to win over love and establish close relations with persons.”
However, the Islamic Ministry has concluded that the items seized by the police were not related to black magic, Shamnaz’s lawyer Ali Shah told Adhadhu on Wednesday, July 10.
Police officers have repeatedly attempted to coerce Shamnaz into providing false testimony to frame her ex-husband Adam Rameez, he alleged. “The police want Shamnaz to give a statement against Adam Rameez and said they will release her when the statement is given,” the lawyer was quoted as saying.
The police spokesman promptly denied the allegation.
Both Shamnaz and Rameez were members of the Malé city council when Muizzu was the capital’s mayor. Rameez was Muizzu’s most senior aide during the campaign for the September 2023 presidential election.
The couple resigned from the city council after Muizzu assumed office in November 2023. Rameez became an influential minister in the President’s Office. After briefly serving as a personal assistant to First Lady Sajidha, Shamnaz was appointed as a State Minister at the Presidential Palace. She was later transferred to the Ministry of Climate Change, Environment and Energy as an official at the same rank on April 4.
According to media reports, Rameez divorced Shamnaz two weeks before her arrest, which followed rumors of the president falling out with his “righthand man,” whose absence from Muizzu’s side at official events was conspicuous.
After the news of the arrest broke, Rameez and Shamnaz were suspended on June 27. Shamnaz was later sacked and her photo was removed from the list of political appointees on the President’s Office website.
Meanwhile, the revelations about police seeking digital information spurred allegations about the authorities using sorcery as a pretext to arrest Shamnaz. Several opposition figures insinuated a different motive behind the arrests and expressed concern over keeping a mother with a breastfeeding child in custody.
The police could have been looking for a pen drive with evidence implicating Muizzu in corruption, former President Abdulla Yameen suggested on July 4, referring to alleged graft at the Malé city council when Muizzu was the mayor.
“So could it possibly be that they found an opportunity to raid her home because she was a person who worked closely [with Mayor Muizzu] and has a pen drive with corruption cases that occurred then?” Yameen asked at a rally of his People’s National Front (PNF) party, which has declared itself to be in opposition to the Muizzu administration.
As in other Islamic countries, arrests related to black magic are not uncommon in the Maldives. Most recently, a 60-year-old man was arrested over alleged sorcery against a ruling party parliamentary candidate. Irate islanders accused him of casting spells on trees and protested outside the courthouse when he was remanded.
Last year, a 62-year-old woman was stabbed to death by three young men as revenge for practicing black magic.
However, the Maldives penal code does not explicitly criminalize sorcery. In most cases, suspects are charged with possession of unlawful items, which must be declared to be implements of sorcery by a committee at the Islamic Ministry.