Leaked CCTV footage has thrown into dispute an official police account of 43 year-old Abdulla Gasim Ibrahim’s death in a motorcycle accident on August 17.
Reporting the accident at the time, newspaper Haveeru stated that that according to police, two individuals on a motorbike had stolen a mobile phone from a foreigner on Majeedhee Magu and sped away on a motorcycle. Police had then ordered them to stop, but the two men had ignored the orders and fled from the scene at high speed.
Police said the speeding motorcycle hit the 43 year-old who was sitting on a parked motorcycle in front of the Justice Building, who was subsequently transferred to hospital with head injuries. The other two men were taken into police custody and charged with theft and speeding to avoid arrest, and the stolen phone was retrieved and returned to its rightful owner.
At the time of the accident, police told local media the accident had occurred due to the speeding motorcycle’s collision with Ibrahim’s motorcycle. They had made no mention of any police involvement in the collision aside from ordering the motorcycle to stop.
However, footage leaked on social media – which appears to be from a camera on the wall of the Presidential residence of Hileaage – shows a police officer stepping in front of the speeding motorcycle and appearing to hit the driver on the head with a baton as he rides past.
The driver loses control and collides with Ibrahim sitting on his motorcycle just in front of the Justice Building entry, causing both to fly off their vehicles. The police officer retrieves an object from the ground and wanders away, as other police and a military officer rush to the scene.
Ibrahim’s widow Naseema Khaleel at the time of the collision shared details of his condition with the media: “Doctor says he is 99 percent braindead. He has been kept on the ventilator from day one. The doctor said they’ll turn off the machine at 7:00pm tonight.”
Ibrahim was taken off the ventilator and died on August 20.
Letter to PIC
In a letter to the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) dated September 24 and obtained by Minivan News, Ibrahim’s wife expresses regret that police failed to reveal details of the incident.
“The ‘accident’ occurred due to a policeman standing in front of Hilaaleege using his baton to hit the head of the driver on a motorcycle which had two people fleeing after stealing, which caused the motorcycle to lose control and drive into Abdulla Gasim Ibrahim’s motorcycle,” Naseema writes.
She calls on the PIC to investigate the incident in depth and look into whether the police, either as an institution or as individuals, acted in breach of the law.
Article 41(c) of the Police Act states that Maldives Police Service should inform the PIC upon the occurrence of death or infliction of grave bodily injury to a person due to the use of force by a police officer.
Naseema refers to the Act in her letter and suggests that if the PIC had not been informed of the incident by police, it proved they were violating the law. She states that she intends to file the matter in court.
A police source told Minivan News that law enforcement officials were required to assess whether the application of force was justifiable, adding that the officer’s use of his baton on the fleeing suspect was “total negligence on his part”.
“They could have let them go and found them afterwards. They had the number plate, they could easily make out who it was, and there looks to have been plenty of eyewitnesses. What he did was totally stupid,” the source said. “There was also danger for the officer involved.”
The source said it was “very concerning” that police had not released to the public the true account of the circumstances which had led to the death of the bystander.
“There should be a thorough inquiry into police procedure and training in the proper application of force,” the source suggested.
After the footage began to circulate on social media, Police Sub-Inspector Hassan Haneef told Minivan News that police could not respond to allegations that officers were involved in Ibrahim’s death. Haneef said it was unable to respond as the letter of complaint was addressed to the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) and not the Maldives Police Service.
“The PIC will investigate and take necessary steps if any police or the institution is found to have committed such an act. The investigation is still ongoing,” he claimed.
Warning – some viewers may find the following footage disturbing
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Note how the killer panics and runs away from the crime scene after realizing what has happened.
That's not the most important part.
Note how the police roughly manhandle Gasim - dropping him once while stuffing him into the vehicle. That would have aggravated his severe injuries.
I don't think so. The thieves were coming straight at the officer, who stepped aside and then hit one of them. I highly doubt he would know who or what was behind him when a speeding motorcycle was headed for him, on which he would have been focusing on.
The result was unfortunate. Gasim just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. To blame this on the officer is really not the best move, merely because someone hates the current government.
However, I think the thieves should be charged with murder.
The police guys are so ignorant and had no simple knowledge on physics, with such speed even the thieves would have been knocked down to their death with such blow. The poor bystander took the full force and was blown away to his death. If he was not there the motorcyclist would have died. What a shame on this moronic so called bunch of zombie police.
The officer Was trying to stop thieves speeding away.however, police as an instituition failed by not mentioning that the action of the officer may have contributed to the accident.They failed to inform the deceased persons family of the exact nature of the accident.For this mistake they might pay a price at the courts.
I cannot believe either; policeman who instigated the accident flees from the crime scene. They are trained to hit people and cause harm, the policeman whole life and career is wasted if charged with manslaughter.
LOL Abdulla Riyaaz...the video proves your professional police, actually causing bodily harm to murder someone.
And this guy’s sidekick, defense minister Nazim put a manhunt on the person who leaked this ugly truth about police brutality.
.
Policeman hitting the offender & trying to flee is one question. However the bigger question here is would the accident have been avoided should the policeman had done nothing to the fleeing criminals.
NOthing absolutely justifies this policeman's stupid actions. Its not ok to hit with a baton even thieves fleeing in a motor cycle. Not to mention this sheer irresponsibility in not looking behind him to see if it was ok to take such a drastic action. Gasim didn't deserve this and his family atleast deserved the truth and compensation from the state. Maldives police it seems does not give a damn how many people they hit or injure or even kill, it shows a force that is completely out of control
The footage is clear enough to see what actually happened.
Yes, the deceased just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
And yes, the officer would have not been able to register the motor cycle stopping behind him, due to the speed of the happening!
However, the officer involved, and the department should have told the family and media of what happened showing the footage.
Also the MNDF, should have taken up the matter of the unlawful cover up by the police department and not being clear on media.
Because the officer, the police department and MNDF failed to report to media facts, and because they covered up the incident, they are guilty somehow or the other.
The very people who are sworn to serve and protect, cannot be doing this!
Just for a 700Rf Phone, an Innocent Killed... Shame!!
The fact is it is a fatal cover up, any cover ups require the Police to be punished and taught this is not allowed.
It was the fault of the thief that this murder occurred.
Why ?
The thief MADE THE DECISION to rob someone.
The thief MADE THE DECISION to ride the motorbike at 100 miles per hour.
The thief MADE THE DECISION not to stop when he was asked to stop.
The thief was FULLY AWARE of the consequences of his actions, that if he were speeding that he might crash into something or somebody. Yet HE CHOSE to take the risk of speeding.
IT WAS HIS CHOICE. THIS DECISION of the thief led to this sequence of unfortunate events
If a Partey comes into your house, points a knife at you , and asks you to give him all the money in your account, and stand idly by while he rapes ur girlfriend, and you refuse and try to wrench the knife from his hands, and in the ensuing struggle the partey gets stabbed in the stomach DOES THAT MAKE YOU A MURDERER ?
No. YOU WERE ACTING IN SELF DEFENSE.
IT WAS THE PARTEYS DECISION TO ROB THAT LED TO HIM GETTING KILLED.
If you do something criminal such as robbing a bank and in the ensuing events, one of ur accomplices get hurt, it is UR RESPONSIBILITY and UR ACCOMPLICES responsibility. YOURS. The person who CHOSE to commit the crime.
The full responsibility of this murder falls on the Thief. Course if you are someone associated with MDP you may chose to disagree. Because you belong to the category of people who blame the police for MDP's fall from power. And because of that, you will stoop to any level, ignore every fact so as to find every bit of fault in police's work and attribute every mishap and accident to the police.
The junior constable acted against the guideline of police conduct, resulting, a man being killed. Abdulla Riyaz tried to hide the heinous act of a junior constable. Mohamed Nazim tried to hide and withhold video evidence of the crime, to protect Abdulla Riyaz.
This is the mentality of the people sworn in to protect the public. If Abdulla Riyaz and Mohamed Nazim tried to bring justice to the deceased mans family and brought the police constable who acted against the law, then they could have saved their reputation and gained some confidence from the public, that they are serving the public.
Karma is the destiny man weaves for himself; their education or life experience couldn’t save them from exposing this heinous crime against an innocent bystander.
Whats next? They will cook up another devious plan to save themselves of their involvement, exposing another blunder and deprivation of justice.
obviously there was a lack of professional ethics and common sense on police side.
However, I think the bystander looks as if though he was following the situation and looks behind. This must have been happening very fast, in fact Police man would find it near impossible to hit the drivers head as the news claims here.
Another thing is what is this police source that minivan claims of? Just any hogwash or anything unverifiable could be the source? I doubt it.
Therefore this does fall under police negligence and miss handling of the situation but there is nothing further that could be done i.e. can't sue them. But the Robbing pair should be charged with involuntary or second degree man slaughter i.e. maybe this time the cops were chasing but what next? The next time these dangerous fellows hit a mother taking a baby pram and the irregular rock on payment was to blame?
*pavement /road
@Geronimoooo > YOU CAN WRITE IN CAPS...but it does not take the fact how "YOUR ONE AND TRULY ABDUALLA RIYAZ FAILED TO TELL THE PUBLIC WHAT REALLY HAPPEND AND "FORGOT" TO MENTION THE PART WHERE THE POLICE OFFICER HIT THE SPEEDING CRIMINAL
and your one and truly "HAVEERU.COM" report quoted a witness saying " the police was far away from the incident when the CRIMINALS hit the bystander"
we all agree that the criminals need to be caught..just as much as public servants such as bagee riyas should be telling the public what really happend without trying to hide facts...DONT YOU THINK?
@Geronimoooo on Mon, 3rd Dec 2012 1:59 PM.
You can enlarge and stress points for all your liking. But that is not going to erase the fact truth of what happened was smoothed and polished to a high degree such that the POLICE will not be tarnished.
However, the matter of the fact is that if the story was told as according to what is seen in the CCTV footage, and if it were shown and explained in true spirit. There would have not been any need to cover up.
Now you seem to be having a duty to answer question, be it you are the guilty police constable or the police service!
NO, the officer had nothing to do with it, the criminal ran into the officers baton, and damaged the baton.
the brave officer was trying to save his baton from the criminal trying to run into his baton.
the baton was lucky! the biker ran into the baton with the soft part of his head, so the baton survived. so lucky.
the baton and officer should receive awards for their courage.
this is the official report
this is no cover up, the good police of this country was only trying to save his baton from a crazy thief on a motor bike.
This article does not mention:
1) there were two people on the motorcycle
2) police hit the person on the back not the driver
3) and is it the head that police hits? the video is unclear about that
4) original report also said "fuluhun huttuvan ulhunu"
This article and the comments highlights that political polarization has led to a skewed view regarding police and security officials in the country.
The MDP led by President Nasheed has openly blamed the Maldives Police Service and the MNDF for his fall from the Presidency. Unsurprisingly Nasheed's supporters hate the police and the MNDF.
Those who were not fans of the Nasheed-regime feel they have to defend the police and the MNDF at every turn. So they do regardless of the facts.
The people in between lose out because media outlets financed by political parties present either image of an institution which could do with some constructive criticism and also some support from the public for its future development.
& Bullyrag
Look closely at the video. At the times when the policeman swings his baton. It hits the second guy on the back. Not the driver. The policeguys hand comes swooping down on the back of the second guy.
The reason why the driver crashed into the bystander was because he swerved to avoid the policeman, and he lost control of his bike.
I think it was kind of reckless for the cop, but it was an unfortunate coincidence that there was a bystander behind the cop, and the victim is seen trying to move out of the way before the driver crashes into the victim.
If the thief driver had tried to swerve right of the cop instead of left, then the victim might have possibly survived.
Yet, i still stand by my earlier statement. This murder occurred due to a speeding thief, who decided to rob someone, AND who decided to speedaway on his motorbike, AND who decided NOT to stop when the cops started chasing him. If he had slowed down when he had been speeding, he wouldnt have crashed his bike so hard into the victim, and the victim probably would have survived. The speed of the crash and the decision by the criminal thief not to stop or slow down and the decision by the thief to swerve left of the cop so as to escape, was what killed this Gasim guy.
If he hadnt tried to commit this stupid stunt and instead just stopped the cycle then none of this would have ever happened. But like i said earlier, if you are a thief, and you just stole something and the cops are chasing after you, slowing down or the fact that you may lost control of the bike and hit someone are the least of ur worries, his number 1 priority would be to swerve and speedaway, and then boast away to his pals oh lookie here, here's this i-phone i robbed from this bangaalhee, i outran the cops !
& justice
nah. im not a cop, im a regular guy doing work in a govt company posting stupid comments on sites which nobody probably reads anyway...
i need a life !
True, the two on the speeding bike stole a phone, true Gasim is unfortunate enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time
BUT When the hell did we all start being ok with a police man hitting the head of a theif on a speeding motor bike with a batton!! I don't care even if it hid the driver or accomplice in the back seat.
THIS IS CRIMINAL OFFENSE!
The policeman had guts to come infront of the speeding thief, i praise him for that but he should have thought of other bystanders before taking on such a decision.It was an unfortunate incident and accident.
Im sure They'll get banished to some island and thats the last we'll hear of it...
lookie here...praising the cop.
@geronimoo... its no reason to praise cops bcz ur working at a stupid govt job and that u need a life. There should be a report on this... the report should have the coroner report which SHOULD have outlined the person hit by the baton.. yes it could be the driver or the passenger. However, the community grounds is not a cricket pitch. And in all army/cop counselings, they preach their trained officers "NOT TO BE A HERO" which this guy definitely tried to become.
Thieves will do theft.. its a part of a country that no government has been able to rid of. The consequences of un planned marriage, un planned kids, and society issues.
If cops start going out with batons to stop speeding vehicles, then what would become? Can anyone seriously check if this officer had done his first training? cz if he did not, then he has no moral obligations..