Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed, speaking in a meeting at the Maldvian Democratic Party (MDP) headquaters, has announced that the government will return Maldivian detainees from Syria.
Dr Shaheed said that he would soon travel to Syria with the main purpose of releasing the Maldivian detainees from Syrian jails.
”The main reason of scheduled trip to Syria is to release the Maldivian detainees from prison,” Dr Shaheed said. ”Hopefully, we can release these prisoners and bring them to the Maldives.”
He said the detainees had been kept there for a long time.
”We will bring them and hand over them to their parents,” he said.
He said the Foreign Ministry was a ministry which worked “in transparency making everything visible to the people”.
Speaking in the meeting, Dr Shaheed responded to claims made by the Peoples Alliances (PA) that the current government was trying “to please white people.”
”When the Maldives ran for a seat in the United Nations Human Rights Council, 185 countries voted for us. Are they all white people?” questioned Dr Shaheed.
”Last week the United Arab Emirates (UAE) asked us if they could establish a Maldivian Embassy. Are they also all white people?”
Dr Shaheed did not mention who the detainees were or what they had been arrested for.
Spokesperson for the Foreign ministry Irushadha Abdul Sattar said the ministry was trying to return two Maldivians detained in two different prisons in Syria.
Irushadha said that the two men were detained in Syria due to drug related charges.
”one of them has been detained since 2003 and the other since 2008,” She said.
Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Dr Abdulla Mausoom said if the detainees were Maldivians and innocent people, “the government should not wait a single minute without helping them.”
”If there are innocent Maldivians detained anywhere the government should help them,” Dr Mausoom said.
The Maldivian government has recently announced that it will resettle two detainees from Guantanamo Bay jail, creating public outcry. President Mohamed Nasheed dismissed concerns and claimed it was a “humanitarian” act.
Parliament’s National Security Committee is now investigating the case of the detainees the Maldivian government allegedly agreed to bring in to the country, which some MPs claimed might disrupt the peace and sovereignty of the country.
Dr Shaheed and State Foreign minister Ahmed Naseem was on an official trip and was unable to get a comment, while the President’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair is on leave.
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No No they should not bring any prisoners to Maldives, they will bring terrorist attacks other bad things to the country only bring Mullahs, Homos & Paedophiles that's what Adaalath, Salafs want and it will bring good luck to the country.I wonder why DRP is not so concern about the situation after all even if they are Maldivians they have been in Syrian jail for three years & we don't know why they were arrested.Ali Waheed please send this case to Majlis.
The standard of english on this website has deteriorated greatly. The articles do not seem to have been proofread at all and there are blatant grammatical errors.
This has never been a problem on this site but you are now in danger of losing your readers if you don't improve the writing or hire better journalists.
For gods sake stop this nonsense! Is increasing the number of criminals in our society the only thing that the government is interested in. I do not know why I voted for this government.
Good boy! Dr go and bring them home, we need more drug addicts, smuglers, peodophiles, rapists & Mullahs. Bring them all home...lets arrange a warm welcome to them also...
These people weren't arrested and detained for nothing i suppose. Why is the government being so sympathetic to the criminals?
Those who oppose this ...Would you react this way if the detainees were your relatives? Be reasonable. Its better to bring them and put in a jail here. Let them die in Maldives if need be.
Wow..Wow Beyya, look who's talking..bring them and put them in Jail here? what jails are you talking about..wake up Beyya, Criminals are roaming freely on the streets of Maldives, killing, raping, terrorising people.. and you talking about putting someone in Jail. Where is Sarangu Adam Maniku's son, who is supposed to be in Jail? buggar roams freely on the streets.. Yes, If that person is a drug smuggler,
belive it or not , even if Maldives isnt the free-est county in the world, we do enjoy many liberties that are not afforded in Syria. the human rights record of Syria is a far cry from even Maldives ( during Gayoom's time ). the Maldivian detainees might be innocent or even guilty but the Maldivian government is liable to protect our way of life, our rights and dignity even overseas, so yes if they hold Maldivian passports they have the right to be extradited to their home county.
My only question and concern is what happens to them once they are brought back to Maldives. If they were actually detained on Drug related crimes, is it safe or is it even the just thing to do? We need to keep the communities rights/ the country's right as a whole before we put the rights of individual persons in front!!!!
Think about it, tomorrow these same people will be drug dealers to our youth!
Even if we bring them back, we need to consider what needs to be done before we can just set them free.....