The former Controller General of Maldives Immigration, Mohamed Shamaan Waheed, has been detained for 15 days. Shamaan was arrested on Friday night under a court order in connection with allegations that some Immigration employees were abusing their position to obtain undue benefits from foreign workers.
Shamaan was dismissed from his position as Immigration Controller on the 21st of this month amid corruption allegations. In a statement released on Friday, the police shared findings from their ongoing investigation into information received about some Maldives Immigration employees abusing their positions to obtain undue benefits from foreign workers. According to the statement, employees from sections of Immigration other than the Task Force and Risk Management Section, which usually handle the responsibility of finding and detaining illegal foreigners, have misused their official influence influence to search a house where foreign workers live and have taken foreign nationals into Immigration custody along with a large amount of cash.
The police also stated that their investigation revealed that one day later, on the orders of the then Controller General of Immigration, a foreigner who was brought to Immigration to Immigration detention with 530,000 Maldivian Rufiyaa was released from detention in the early hours of the morning.
