President's Office amends Special Commission investigating Italo case number 28

The President’s Office has changed the formation of the Special Commission appointed by the President to investigate the manner in which the Maldives acted in the case gazetted as “Italo” Case No. 28. The amendment is carried in Decision No. 2026/18, published in the Government of Maldives Gazette (Issue No. 164, Volume 55) dated 9 November 2026, corresponding to 29 Jumada al-Ula 1448. The notice is signed out of Malé by the President’s Office, the body responsible for compiling and publishing state rules, regulations and decisions.

A commission reshaped eight days after its creation

Decision No. 2026/18 is titled, in Dhivehi, as the instrument bringing a change to the formation of the Special Commission appointed by the President to investigate how the Maldives acted in “Italo” Case No. 28. Its wording mirrors the mandate language used in the decision that first constituted the body.

That founding instrument, Decision No. 2026/17, appeared in the immediately preceding phase of the same volume: the Government of Maldives Gazette Issue No. 161, Volume 55, dated 1 November 2026 (21 Jumada al-Ula 1448). It established the commission under the same case reference, describing its task as inquiring into the conduct of the Maldivian state in “Italo” Case No. 28.

The two decisions therefore sit eight days apart, a gap that places the reconstitution of the commission within the opening fortnight of its work rather than at the close of any inquiry cycle.

What the gazette records

The official record published on 9 November sets out the following elements:

• Instrument: Decision No. 2026/18, headed as a change to the formation of the Special Commission.
• Body affected: the Special Commission appointed by the President to investigate the handling of “Italo” Case No. 28.
• Issuing authority: the President’s Office, Malé, Dhivehi Raajje.
• Prior instrument: Decision No. 2026/17, which created the commission.
• Subject matter of the inquiry: the manner in which the Maldives acted in the case identified as “Italo” Case No. 28.

Publication in the official gazette

Decision No. 2026/18 appears in Issue No. 164 of Volume 55 of the Government of Maldives Gazette, dated 9 November 2026 and 29 Jumada al-Ula 1448. The gazette’s standard notice states that rules and regulations are published at the request of the President’s Office, which receives such requests at legalaffairs@po.gov.mv; the office lists telephone 3336211, mobile 7242885 and the website www.gazette.gov.mv.

Under the numbering of the same day, the President’s Office also issued Decision No. 2026/19, concerning the establishment of Dhivehi Resort Share Corporation Limited, carried in a separate issue of the gazette. The pairing illustrates the routine use of the decision series for both corporate and institutional matters.

Why it matters

Because Decision No. 2026/18 changes the composition of the Special Commission rather than its mandate, the practical effect falls on who is empowered to conduct the inquiry into “Italo” Case No. 28 and, by extension, on the parties whose conduct is under examination. For readers following the case, the operative text is the one gazetted on 9 November 2026, which supersedes the formation laid down on 1 November.

Source: Government of Maldives Gazette, No. 164, 9 November 2026, section I (official reference: Decision No. 2026/18).