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Two journalists from the Maldivian news website Adhadhu have been sentenced to jail time for violating a court-imposed gag order tied to a documentary that accused President Mohamed Muizzu of having an affair with a woman who previously worked in his office.

Getting into it: The criminal court in the Maldivian capital, Male, handed down the sentences on Tuesday following a series of secret contempt of court hearings. Adhadhu reporter Mohamed Shahzan (who also serves as Vice President of the Maldives Journalists Association) was sentenced to 15 days in jail, while Adhadhu journalist Leevan Ali Nasir received 10 days plus a fine of approximately $1,738. Shahzan was jailed for questioning Muizzu directly during a press conference Monday about 58 phone calls the president had allegedly made between January and April 2025 to the former presidential aide featured in the documentary, including late at night and in the early hours of the morning. Muizzu refused to answer, accused Shahzan of violating the gag order, and ordered MNDF security personnel to forcibly remove him from the briefing.

Nasir was sentenced separately for publishing a news article that reported on the gag order’s existence. The court ruled that publicizing the order amounted to a violation of it. The sentencings mark the first time journalists have been jailed in the Maldives since the country adopted its democratic constitution in 2008.

In a statement, Adhadhu condemned the sentencings and said, “For the first time in our democratic history, journalists have been jailed for challenging the most powerful man in the nation.”

International press freedom groups denounced the sentences. The International Federation of Journalists “strongly condemned” the jailings, while the Committee to Protect Journalists called the case a “punitive attempt to criminalise investigative journalism.”

This all comes as the case itself centers on a documentary called “Aisha” that Adhadhu posted to its social channels back on March 28. The film includes an interview with a woman whose identity is hidden, who says she slept with the president. Muizzu has dismissed the allegations as “baseless lies.”