Former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih (Ibu) has said that the charges the state has filed against GDh. Thinadhoo City Mayor Saud Ali are politically coloured and were brought to protect the interests of a particular group.

In a post on social media today, Ibu noted that such charges — laced with personal vendetta — cannot halt the service Mayor Saud is providing to the people of Thinadhoo City. He characterised intimidating elected officials, dismantling the decentralised system, and concentrating powers in the central government as a step backwards for the country’s development.

In the case alleging that GDh. Thinadhoo was declared a city unlawfully, the Prosecutor General’s Office has filed two charges against Saud — knowingly issuing a false document and providing false information to an official authority — which were submitted to the Criminal Court on Wednesday.