Sheikh Nasrulla Musthafa is seeking MVR 35 million from the journalists at Mihaaru, suing them for defamation.

The former Principal of Arabiyya School, Nasrullah Musthafa has filed a lawsuit for defamation against the five journalists from Mihaaru and the local media group VMedia at the Civil Court, for reporting on him scamming people into unlicensed pilgrimages.

A hearing in the case was filed at the Civil Court’s dispute resolution stage on Tuesday. While both parties were unable to reach an agreement on Tuesday, an additional hearing is to be held next week. And if they are still unable to resolve the issue then, it will be sent to trial.

At Tuesday’s hearing, the defendants were provided case documents of the allegations against them.

Musthafa is suing Mihaaru’s Fazeena Ahmed, Ahmed Abdulla Saeed, Muizzu Ibrahim, Mohamed Yamin and Asima Nizar, for defamation, and is seeking MVR seven million (total MVR 35 million) from each journalist.

While he had initially filed a suit against the five journalists at Mihaaru, Musthafa, at Tuesday’s dispute resolution stage, decided to withdraw his suit against Muizzu, Mihaaru’s Legal Affairs reporter.

Speaking on Musthafa’s decision to withdraw his name, Muizzu said that he had not discussed anything regarding the case with him, adding that he had no idea why Musthafa decided to withdraw the lawsuit against him.

Hence, the Court’s dispute resolution stage will move forward with the cases against the other journalists, as well as VMedia.

Noting that they had not reported anything besides the truth, Mihaaaru’s Ahmed Abdulla Saeed noted that their reports were based on information provided by the deputy minister at the Islamic Ministry Sheikh Ibrahim Ahmed, who was the top official in charge of the Maldives Hajj Mission.