PG office says evidence insufficient to prove youth sold child abuse material

The Prosecutor General’s (PG) Office said on Sunday that police had failed to obtain enough evidence to prove that a 22-year-old Maldivian arrested on suspicion of selling child sexual abuse material through cryptocurrency had sold or distributed such content.

The statement was issued after the PG Office withdrew two charges filed against Adam Adhlan Latheef, of Moonimaage, Th. Vilufushi.

Adhlan was arrested in April in connection with the case and released from custody in May. The PG Office filed two charges against him on 19 May before later withdrawing the case from the Criminal Court.

The PG Office had faced questions from journalists over the reasons for withdrawing the charges. Sunday’s statement was its first public explanation of the decision.

According to the office, prosecutors initially decided not to charge Adhlan because the evidence submitted by police was insufficient. The case was returned to police, who then requested a review of the decision.

The PG Office said the case was reviewed as the statutory deadline for filing charges approached.

“During the review process, taking into account that the statutory deadline for pressing charges in this case was expiring, two charges were submitted against Adam Adhlan Latheef to the Criminal Court on May 19, 2026,” the office said.

The PG Office said the charges were filed to preserve the option of prosecution, as allowing the statutory deadline to expire would have prevented charges from being brought later.

Prosecutors continued reviewing the evidence after the charges were filed and subsequently decided to withdraw them.

The PG Office cited four reasons for the decision.

It said the main allegation under investigation was that Adhlan had sold child sexual abuse material. However, investigators had not obtained evidence showing that he had sold, commercialised or sent such material to another person, or that he was part of a network involved in its distribution.

The office also said police had seized several digital devices during the investigation, but the evidence was insufficient to establish Adhlan’s responsibility for most of them.

According to the statement, explicit material was found on devices linked to Adhlan. However, the PG Office said the evidence was insufficient to prove that the material constituted child pornography under the law.

As a result, prosecutors concluded that they could not proceed with the charge relating to knowingly keeping child pornography on a computer system.

The PG Office said the evidence could support only a charge of possessing explicit material.

According to the office, the standard sentence for that offence is one month and six days in prison, while the minimum sentence is nine days.

Adhlan had already spent 28 days in detention during the investigation.

“Since subtracting the time spent in investigative detention from the sentence that would be imposed if convicted leaves no remaining penalty to serve, it was deemed not in the public interest to pursue this charge further,” the PG Office said.

The office therefore decided to withdraw both charges from court.