Police on Thursday said that they had arrested two people who had been sexually abusing a large number of young boys.

The two men are Moosa Ismail, 40, and Ahmed Ibrahim, 33 and Police said that the two had been arrested in two separate cases. Last month Police had captured another pedophile, Hussain Fazeel, 38, who had had sexual relationships with a large number of young boys and had kept an extensive digital video and photo collection of his activities.

Some of Moosa’s victims had also been sexually abused by Fazeel, Habeeb said, but admitted that there didn’t seem to be any direct connection between Fazeel and Moosa. Police said that Moosa, who is a married man, had preyed on school children too.

Ahmed had been arrested in 2002 on charges of having sexual relationships with a 17-year-old boy. He was arrested again in 2004 for having sex with a 13-year-old boy. When he was arrested again on similar charges in 2007, he was already serving a three-year banishment sentence given in April 2006 for having sex with a 13-year-old boy.

Mirufath said that the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation (DPRS) had notified them that Ahmed Ibrahim had fled to Malé to escape the banishment sentence and had been in hiding since then. He further said that Ahmed Ibrahim had been keeping the two kids, one 14 years old and the other 17, after lying to their parents that they were working for him.

The two children had suffered extensive injuries due to the sexual abuse and were now undergoing treatment, Mirufath said.

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