Two charges filed against Thinadhoo Mayor over population dispute
1 ސެޕްޓެމްބަރު 2026 | އަންގާރަ 09:14The Prosecutor General's Office has filed two criminal charges against Thinadhoo City Mayor Saud Ali for allegedly falsifying population data to secure city status for the island. The Mayor faces charges of knowingly providing fraudulent documentation and submitting false information to a government agency, offenses which carry a combined potential prison sentence of nearly two years if he is convicted.
Mayor of Thinadhoo, Saud Ali. | Social Media
The Prosecutor General’s Office has filed two criminal charges against the Mayor of Thinadhoo, Saud Ali, over allegations of submitting falsified population data to state authorities in a bid to secure city status for GDh. Thinadhoo.
In this case, Saud has been charged with knowingly providing a fraudulent document and providing false information to an official institution.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has announced that charges have been filed against Saud for knowingly submitting falsified documents in an attempt to portray Thinadhoo as meeting the 10,000-resident population threshold required for city status. According to the PG Office, the population list Saud signed and submitted to the Local Government Authority (LGA) included details of deceased individuals as well as other unverified information.
Furthermore, the Prosecutor General’s Office noted that the investigation revealed discrepancies in a second list signed and submitted by Saud. Despite the Local Government Authority’s request for a verified list including national identity card numbers, this submission contained information of individuals registered in other islands and multiple duplicate entries.
The lawsuit alleges that the list contained fraudulent information, falsely claiming that the population of Thinadhoo stands at 10,150.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has stated that if found guilty, the defendant faces a standard sentence of one year, seven months, and six days in prison.
The second charge brought against Saud, involving the provision of false information to an official government agency, was filed on the grounds that he provided misleading information to the police during the investigation of this case.
The Prosecutor General’s Office stated that during the police investigation into the matter, Saud sent a signed fax message claiming there was no record of the council submitting any population lists to state authorities in its bid to attain city status, despite a formal request for those documents.
The standard penalty for this charge is a prison sentence of four months and 24 days.
Thinadhoo was officially granted city status during the previous administration.
