While Luthufaru’s crew members on ‘Kurimagu 1’ have confessed to his murder, police said that they killed him “because of attempts of same-sex relations.”

Police revealed this at a press conference on Thursday, and stated that the three crew members have confessed to killing Luthufaru, “for attempting same sex relations” with a fellow crew member.

Police’s Serious and Organized Crime Department’s Head, Superintendent Hassan Shifau revealed that three of Luthufaru’s crew members had strangled to him death on the night of April 21. Police had made the suspects reenact the murder, earlier this week.

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.

While police cited the arrested crew men to have stated that other crew members of ‘Kurimagu 1’ were also aware of his sexual relations, other crew members are to have made the same allegations.

Although Luthufaru was reported to be involved in a financial spat with other expatriate workers, police investigations could not prove this. Police were not able to confirm whether the murder was pre-planned or otherwise.

During the press conference, police had enlightened press on the work they had carried out to find Luthufaru’s body. Police had also shown press, pictures of the “body parts” they believe to belong to Luthufaru, fished out by a diving team from the reef outside the island harbor.

While said body parts were found in different regions, when inquired on how they can be sure that the body parts were Luthufaru’s, police revealed that they are working to conduct scientific tests to make confirm whether the body parts were indeed, Luthufaru’s.

Luthufaru went missing in Shaviyani Lhaimagu in April, 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 are 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.