Amb. Keshap to Zahid: can you bring a tragically murdered blogger to life?

While a number of Confederate monuments across the United States are being vandalized with deadly protests in some areas, council member of the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), Zahid Rameez chose to use the opportunity to try and insult the U.S. Ambassador to the Maldives.

Retweeting a CNN news article with the title 'Many monuments, particularly Confederate ones, have been vandalized in the wake of recent events in Charlottesville", Rameez asked whether this was happening "in the so called most democratic country?" tagging Ambassador Atul Keshap.

However, the Ambassador did not miss a beat, and responded "tell me, Zahid, is it easier to repair a statue or to bring a tragically murdered blogger back to life".

Tragically. Murdered. Blogger.

Yameen Rasheed; stabbed to death in a gruesome attack in the early hours on the 23rd of April; the attackers took him by surprise as they waited for him to return home from work that night, his body was found on the staircase with over 30 stab wounds. Yameen Rasheed. Just 29 years old.

Now, let's have a look at why the Ambassador said this at Rameez.

It is well known that Yameen had received a number of death threats; some anonymous, others not-so-much; these threats were filed at the Maldives Police Service, who undoubtedly failed to protect the writer's life.

Rameez is one of the individuals who had targeted Yameen, sending him threats via twitter, which twitter user @pikomonster was kind enough to share with Ambassador Keshap.

In these tweets, which are in Dhivehi, Rameez talks about how he will get rid of Yameen and "all those who do not believe in Islam," and that it is "halaal for the people to take the blood of such people".

At one-point Rameez had said that "this is not something [we] do in secret".

Okay. Over 100 days since Yameen's murder, police are yet to question this individual who sent these threats to Yameen so openly, yet authorities were able to arrest Ahmed "Shumba Gong" Ashraf from Sri Lanka. While he was arrested in connection to the explosion aboard the presidential speedboat- after issuing a red notice for him via Interpol- Shumba was later charged with extortion, for allegedly threatening Rameez; on Twitter.

Yameen's father, Hussain Rasheed, who has been championing the fight for justice for his son, told the Ambassador that Rameez "is the one who was threatening Yameen Rasheed for over five long years, with immunity from police".

While the father saying this can be perceived as 'being too emotional,' it sure seems like he is right.

Also, let's not forget police had, after the investigation, said that Yameen’s murder had been “religiously motivated”. According to police, the suspects in custody had killed Yameen because they felt like he had insulted Islam.

From the looks of those tweets, seems like Rameez had the same feeling towards Yameen.