A disappeared Maldivian journalist’s family still waits for closure

"I still see him in my dreams," a family member of Ahmed Rilwan told me, speaking in Dhivehi. "There, he's happy and himself. Always with his wry smile and humour. I believe he died as a martyr, maybe that's why I never have nightmares about him."

For eight years, the unresolved disappearance of the Maldivian investigative journalist and human rights defender Ahmed Rilwan has left his family unable to proceed with the administrative and legal processes that follow bereavement. His final days were consumed by a whirlpool of terror that culminated in his forced disappearance and alleged killing in August 2014. Last December, the harrowing facts leading up to Rilwan's disappearance were yet again confirmed by the Maldives' Commission on Deaths and Disappearances (DDCom) in a press conference. DDCom is a transitional justice mechanism established in 2018 under President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's administration on his first day in office to investigate unresolved cases of murders, enforced disappearances, and abductions that occurred during the former government's rule, led by President Abdulla Yameen, and provide justice to the victims and their families. Since pledging to recover assets stolen under the previous government, Solih initiated investigations into the allegations against Yameen and his associates. Ex-president Abdulla Yameen, received an 11-year jail term on allegations of bribery and money laundering.