Thino City Mayor Saud Ali to Face Trial Tomorrow on False-Information Charges

The Criminal Court has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow at 13:00 to proceed with two criminal charges against Thino City Mayor Saud Ali. Mayor Saud is accused of providing a false document and providing false information to an official office. If convicted, he faces a prison sentence of up to two years. The court had given Mayor Saud a 10-day deadline to appoint a lawyer, which has now passed. The Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) alleges that Mayor Saud submitted lists containing false information about deceased individuals to the Local Government Authority (LGA) in order to show that the population of Thino was 10,000. The PGO also claims that he lied to the police, stating that the information had not been shared with the police investigation and had not been recorded. Mayor Saud has completely denied the allegations, stating that this is an unfounded effort carried out using political influence to remove him from his position. The controversy over Thino's city status was first raised in 2024 by Thino North constituency MP Saudulla Hilmi, who submitted the issue to the People's Majlis and LGA, arguing that Thino was designated as a city in violation of the law. MP Saudulla claimed that asserting the population of Thino was 10,150 people was misleading. He alleged that this was done with the intention of allowing councilors elected to Thino to become mayors, and because then-President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had promised to make Thino a city. Thino was declared a city by former President Solih on August 30, 2023, during the presidential election campaign. The current government has since decided to maintain Thino's city status.