The ruling People's National Congress (PNC) parliamentary group leader and Inguraidhoo MP Ibrahim Falah has refused to apologize after calling for the impalement of journalists.
Falah made the comment during the parliament debate on the bill to dismantle free press on August 27 and the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA) filed a police complaint against the MP.
Police said they were seeking the advice of the Prosecutor General's (PG) Office. In a post on X, Falah denied calling for killing anyone.
He refused to issue an apology and said the word Ulubeyndhun (Impalement) has a different meaning in his atoll (Raa atoll).
"In our region, Ulubeyndhun is used to say a misbehaving person must be seated on a higher ground," Falah claimed.
Meanwhile, President Mohamed Muizzu and other senior government officials have refused to condemn the politician's remarks.
Speaking during the parliament debate on the bill to dismantle free press, Falah said some media outlets had spread false news about him in the past and called for media personnel of such outlets to be impaled.
"When they work at this level, the media should not be taken to jail; they should be impaled. Impaled!," he said.
Falah said the media lied about him being homosexual. But no media outlets reported the issue. Posts about the speculation were circulated only on social media platforms.
