SPG officers arrested over rebellious 'Special Operations' video

RaajjeMV has received information that former officers of the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF)'s Special Protection Group (SPG) who were arrested on Wednesday night were brought into police custody under the investigation of a video circulating on social media.

Simad Ahmed, Ahmed Shaneez, and Ahmed Fahthah were arrested in the late hours of Wednesday night.

Simad and Shaneez were arrested on the 23rd of February as well, but they were released and relieved from duty shortly after while Fahthah had already been relieved from duty, some time back.

The three were arrested under the state of emergency decree following the circulation of a video on social media that evidently shows masked men dressed in attire similar to that of the Special Operations uniform.

In the video the masked men are heard saying that police will no longer follow unconstitutional orders and if these orders do not come to an end, they will rise in defense of police institutions. They further say that this needs to be done since the police are being used to frame the innocent and to carry out acts of massive corruption.

Speaking out about the issue, police spokesperson Ahmed Shifan said that it is not yet clear whether the masked men in the video circulating on social media threatening the government are indeed police officers and that investigations are underway to put the 'scandal' to rest.