Former principal of Lale Youth International School, Serkan Akar, appeared in the criminal court yesterday and denied assault and battery charges made against him made by the Prosecutor General’s office.
In the court hearing, Akar denied the accusations and said charges against him were baseless, which included strangling and whipping a child with a belt. The charge sheet noted that two employees witnessed the shoving and heard the child being whipped, during the incident last Ramazan.
Akar’s defense lawyer Abdulla Shair told the judge the charges had many issues, such as no mention of a specific date on which the incident took place.
Deputy Prosecutor General Hussein Shameem said the PG had asked the court to summon the two witnesses.
The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) is currently compiling a case concerning abuse and other activities at Lale, which were reported by Minivan News last month. Akar has since tried to leave the country twice but was detained by immigration officials, who confiscated his passport.
President of HRCM Ahmed Saleem told Minivan News the Lale case was “very strange” and a “high priority” for the commission. A press conference concerning findings on the matter is imminent, Minivan News has been told.
The acting principal of the school Suleyman Atayev has told Minivan News that he is confident any allegations against the principal will be proven false.
Atayev was also critical of HRCM’s investigation: “They are refusing to tell us the nature of the complaints they are investigating. They are supposed be about human rights but they are not respecting ours.”
The Criminal Court of the Maldives had not responded to Minivan News at time of press.
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Local gangs will offer better justice than the Criminal Courts. Try sampling .. the Turks will run for their dear life and shut their mouth.
Serkan, You can deny as much as possible, but remember that on the day of Judgement, justice will be done. You who keep telling the students of Lale School that you got "Good Tharbiyya" from your parents, all I can say is that you might have gotten "Tharbiyya" from the army and not from anywhere else. I am hundred percent sure that your relatives and colleagues will even be ashamed of you, though they may talk nicely to you due to the good "Tharbiyya" they got from their parents.
The day the court rests its case will be a bad day fro you Serkan. Don't forget that the families of the tortured children are living here. Don't for a moment forget that this is Maldives, not Turkey. You better accept the charges and be under police custody till you leave, for blood is thicker than water and we stick to our relatives.
The man is a liar. He deserves to be prisoned and he has to pay back for the damages and upset he has caused to the children and their families.
My son was in the first batch when Lale opened. He too experienced physical assault from the deputy principal then. I complained, but in vain. We all know, the government knows that this management is unprofessional, racists and at one time tried to instil turkish religious beliefs into our kids. Do you know the kids didnt have school holidays last term? If its not money laundering, then who are they guys playing fool with our educational system and have a go with it? Parents who scream at the present education minister should better use their voice in these kinds of issues...
My brother is a Lale student and one day he told me about a lecture about jews. He said that all jews are scums and said that hitler was our hero. I was horrified about the lecture and requested my parents to remove him
@blah….. You will shocked at the things my office mate’s son tells me. They are trying to bring a stop to Islamic activities being held more. They demand to make it 100% Turkish. Why don’t we teach them a thing or two about the country eh mate?
@blah….. You will be shocked at the things my office mate’s son tells me. The Turkish teachers allow the kids to watch adult films when the students stay there overnight; supposedly to study. That is how great these Turkish teachers are. They allow porn and sexual activities AND try to bring a stop to Islamic activities being held more. They demand to make it 100% Turkish. Why don’t we teach them a thing or two about the country eh mate?
Children allowed to watch porn? My god! Where is this country coming to? Is this place a school or something else? Where are the Islamic scholars?
Somebody do something please before these Turkish people ruin our nation completely.
@ Aalu - how do you know that person is not lieing to you?
@ Siththi - Where is this country going? Look at the streets after 10 pm in Male. Look carefully, then you will realize there are strange people walking - people who appear like men but behave like women! yes, that's right they are .....! That's where we are going...it is not happening in a school but on the streets...