Ismail Hammad has been sentenced to 14 years in prison after he was convicted of charges raised by the state over the rape of a 13-year-old girl under the pretext of marriage.

The rape of the child was exposed during the police investigation of the assault of Hammad in a dispute within his religious extremist group. The girl had given birth to Hammad’s child at the time.

The DNA of the child born to the 13-year-old girl matched Hammad’s DNA, police said at the time. The rape victim was the daughter of a leading extremist.

The Criminal Court handed down the 14-year jail sentence on Thursday, the maximum punishment under the special provisions law for child sex offenders. The offence carries a sentence between 10 to 14 years.

Hammad, who is from Raa Maduvvari, was arrested in November 2019 upon his release from hospital after treatment for injuries sustained in the aforementioned assault at sea. Hammad had escaped by jumping overboard from their boat and swimming to Alif Alif Maalhos.

Hammad had been stabbed multiple times by Ismail Asif from Raa Maduvvari. He remains in custody.

According to information previously revealed by police, Hammad was radicalised in prison while serving a sentence for a different crime.

Hammad was first jailed for vandalising VTV in 2012. After his release upon completion of the sentence, he was arrested again on September 22, 2019 over an attempt to smuggle a large number of phones and other items into the Maafushi prison.

Detailing Hammad’s criminal record after his latest arrest, Police Commissioner Mohamed Hameed told a parliamentary committee that Hammad had been suspected of engaging in religious extremist activity since his release from jail.

Hammad was at a dangerous level of religious extremism when he came out of jail.

Hammad is known to be a follower of ISIS. He was alleged to have participated in major cases of theft where property was declared as ghanima (spoils of war).