An expatriate has died in Malé Prison.

MD Akthar Hossein, 50, one of the suspects charged in the murder case of Luthufaru, a Bangladeshi national who was employed as a crew member on Kurimagu 1 boat from Lhaimagu island in Shaviyani atoll, died from a heart attack while receiving treatment at Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), early Thursday.

According to the Maldives Correctional Service, he was taken to the hospital after having suffered from chest pain and breathing difficulties, while playing cards inside his cell.

He was remanded pending the outcome of the murder trial.

The corrections authority revealed that they had informed the Inspector of Correctional Service, Maldives Police Service, National Integrity Commission as well as the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives after he was taken to the hospital.

Back in May 2019, the police institution stated that Luthufaru’s crew members had confessed to the murder, “because of attempts of same-sex relations” with a crew member.

Three of Luthufaru’s crew members; Alamin, Noorul Islam and MD Akthar Hossein, had strangled to him death on the night of 21 April 2019. Police had made the suspects reenact the murder as well. During the investigation, the arrested crew members had confessed that they had tied a rope around him and lowered him into the water over the boat’s deck. They then re-surfaced him, dried him off and laid him on his bed on the boat, to make it look like he was “asleep” before the boat moved out of the dock. The crew members were living on the boat.

Luthufaru went missing in Shaviyani Lhaimagu in April 2019, with the boat captain saying that they found out he was missing as they were preparing to undock. Some of the crew members had informed that he was seen quarreling with some of the crewmen on the night of his disappearance.

Luthufaru was one of the expatriate workers living in the country illegally, so were the crew members who were arrested under allegations of his murder.

While same-sex relations are criminalized in the Maldives, the country’s Penal Code carries several penalties for homosexuality in the country. Some punishments include prison sentences totaling up to eight years, fines and lashings. The community is often subject to abuse, discrimination, hate crimes and several human rights violations for their sexuality.