Maldives Police Service (MPS) has revealed the man who had been arrested last month over links to the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organisation had been spreading propaganda through active social media accounts.
MPS had earlier revealed a 30-year-old Maldivian male was arrested on January 6 in a joint operation involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), authorities from two European Union nations, and MPS. MPS stated the individual arrested is alleged of being a prominent operative associated with ISIS. As such, the individual arrested in the case is alleged to be involved in running its media campaigns, propagating extremism, and more specifically, calling for the perpetration of acts of terror on European soil and to harm its leaders.
MPS stated the arrested individual had been spreading ISIS propaganda on social media platforms since 2015. As such, MPS said the individual had created social media accounts by names such as “Skirmish” and “Skirmish-Kid” on Telegram and other encrypted messaging platforms to spread pro-ISIS messages. MPS said the messages spread on different social media groups were translated to the language of the target country or region.
MPS expressed the case is being treated as a major terrorism investigation and conducted jointly with FBI and authorities of two European Union nations.