Man who tried to video woman taking a bath slapped with MVR 28,000 fine

A man has been slapped with a MVR 28,800 fine for trying to take a video of a woman taking a bath in HA. Filladhoo.

The incident took place at around 11:15 pm on March 7, 2021.

Ali Waheed, Washington House, HA. Filladhoo, was charged with trespassing in connection to the case.

However, he pled not guilty to the charge, claiming that people did not need to take permission to enter private property in islands.

The prosecution produced multiple witnesses to prove the charge, including the victim herself.

The victim testified that she had been taking a bath when she saw someone videoing her with a mobile phone through the transom window. She screamed and exited the bathroom, and alerted the people in the house. She said that they had been searching for the culprit when they found Ali Waheed, and recognized his phone as the one she saw through the window.

She said that they checked his phone, and that though they saw the camera tab was open, they would not find the video.

The victim believes he had immediately deleted the video upon getting caught.

A second witness testified to seeing shoe prints outside the bathroom door, which matched the shoes Ali Waheed was wearing at the time.

The defense produced one witness, who repeated Ali Waheed’s claim that people did not require permission to enter homes in Filladhoo. The witness testified that other people wore the same shoes as Ali Waheed, making it impossible to confirm it was his shoe prints found outside the bathroom door.

The Filladhoo Magistrate Court found Ali Waheed guilty of the charge on February 21.

Ali Waheed asked for the minimum sentence, and for the prison sentence to be converted to a fine.

The charge carries a prison sentence of four months and 21 days, or home confinement of nine months and 18 days, or a fine of MVR 28,800.

Based on the arguments presented by both sides, the judge decided to convert the prison sentence to a fine of MVR 28,800. Ali Waheed was ordered to settle the fine within six months, in monthly payments of MVR 4,800.