International community calls for justice for Yameen Rasheed
Yameen was found on the staircase of his home at around 3 am on Saturday
Yameen had 14 stab wounds on his chest
International community continues to express concern following the news of the gruesome murder of human rights’ defender Yameen Rasheed.
He died while receiving treatment at Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), after being found at around 3 am on Saturday. His father, Hussain Rasheed reported that he had 14 stab wounds on his chest, as well as one on both his neck and throat.
Following the news, British High Commissioner James Dauris, U.S. Ambassador Atul Keshap and Canada’s HC Shelley Whiting took to twitter to send their condolences.
Noting that Yameen was ‘a passionate champion of free speech and human rights’, British High Commissioner James Dauris said that the U.K. shared Maldivians’ ‘sense of loss’.
Ambassador Keshap called for a ‘thorough and speedy investigation’ to ‘bring cowardly murderers of Yameen to justice’.
He highlighted that the investigation into the disappearance of Ahmed Rilwan remains incomplete. Reporter Rilwan was Yameen’s best friend, and was abducted in 2014.
HC Whiting said she was ‘shocked’ to learn of Yameen’s death, adding that ‘the perpetrators must be brought to justice’.
United Nation condemned the 'henious violence against Yameen and freedom of speech", while its resident coordinator to the Maldives, Shoko Noda said that “tolerance and diversity are imperative for any democracy”.
Yameen was the chief editor of The Daily Panic, an investigative and sarcastic look into the weekly political and social issues in the country. He had been in the frontlines in the call for justice for Rilwan, and is one of the many activists to be targeted in the Maldives in the past five years.
