Police spokesperson Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam has confirmed that the former Director General of the country’s Defence Ministry, Isthafa Ibrahim Manik, has been summoned by police as part of an undisclosed investigation.
”He was summoned to clarify some information regarding a case we are investigating,” Shiyam confirmed. ”At the moment, we cannot reveal the nature of the case.”
Reports appearing today in newspaper Miadhu had quoted undisclosed sources as claiming that Manik had been summoned to clarify information surrounding the possible death of a prison inmate called “Abdulla Anees”.
However, Minivan News was not able to confirm what role Manik was playing in the investigation.
Abdulla Anees of Vaavu Keyodhoo Bashigasdhosuge, was an inmate at the former Gaamaadhoo complex and was officially declared missing in the 1980s. The status of a number of former prison inmates claimed to have gone missing under the previous administration has been a major focus of the current government.
Back in September 2009, President Mohamed Nasheed said that Human bones discovered on the site of the former Gaamaadhoo prison were thought to match the age and estimated period of death of Abdulla Anees.
Days later, the President’s Office had confirmed that it had asked police to investigate the samples of 14 bone fragments discovered at the prison, which were sent to Thailand for DNA analysis.
Nasheed later said that forensic examination has identified the age of the deceased, while a former prison guard, Mohamed Naeem, of Gaaf Dhaal Hoadhendhoo Muraka, had told police investigators that Anees died in Gaamaadhoo prison.
The president has since claimed that the police service has now gathered enough evidence to send the case for prosecution, additionally pledging that some 111 cases of missing people identified by historian Ahmed Shafeeq would be investigated.
The Gaamaadhoo jail was destroyed in a fire in 1998 and prisoners were transferred to Maafushi jail.
In the presidential campaign, Hulhu-Henveiru MP “Reeko” Moosa Manik, parliamentary leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) alleged that reports existed claiming that inmates killed in prison were buried at Gaamaadhoo.
Moosa had said before President Nasheed came to power in 2008 that if elected, the Maldivian (MDP) would dig up the potential grave sights to investigate any custodial deaths allegedly concealed by the former government of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
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