POLICE in the Maldives have arrested a marriage celebrant who abused a foreign couple as "swine" and "infidels" during a luxury ceremony in the holiday paradise, an official said today.

Maldivian police spokesman Ahmed Shiyam said the celebrant, who conducted the ceremony in the local language at an upmarket resort fringed by white sand and turquoise water, had been arrested with another hotel employee yesterday.



A video of the ceremony, during which the hapless couple are taunted and subjected to a series of insulting and religious-tinged abuse, was posted on YouTube and has sparked fears for the country's tourism-dependent economy.



The hotel had initially identified the victims as Swiss, but a highly placed tourism source in the Maldives said they were in fact French. Police declined to confirm their nationality.



"We started investigations and treat this as a very serious matter," Shiyam said.



He said the two men were taken before a magistrate who ordered them to be detained for five days.



"Both are being held at a police station in Male," he added.



The Vilu Reef hotel, where the ceremony took place, said it was "unforgivable" that a staff member had read out the sexual and religious slurs in the Dhivehi language and apologised for his conduct.



"You are swine," the couple were told. "The children that you bear from this marriage will all be bastard swine.



"Your marriage is not a valid one. You are not the kind of people who can have a valid marriage. One of you is an infidel. The other, too, is an infidel and, we have reason to believe, an atheist."



The wife, wearing a white dress and carrying a bouquet, and her husband smile shyly through the ceremony, which was to renew their marriage vows at a cost of $US1300 ($A1331).



In front of a table decorated with incense sticks, the English-speaking couple bow their heads in prayer through the torrent of accusations, curses and swearing from the celebrant.



At the end of the 15-minute routine, they exchange rings as the staff clap, before heading onto the beach to plant a coconut tree in the sand.



The Islamic republic of the Maldives, a nation of palm-fringed islands scattered in the Indian Ocean, is one of the world's most exclusive honeymoon destinations and its economy relies heavily on tourism.

Originally published as Maldives arrest local over wedding abuse