Tag: Shiyam

Custodial abuse sparks Cabinet clamp down on “culture of torture”

Cabinet has appointed a committee to reform the Maldives Police Service (MPS) after allegations that the institution continues to have a “culture of police torture”.

The committee includes the Attorney General Husnu Suood, Minister of Human Resources, Youth and Sports Hassan Latheef, and Minister of Tourism Arts and Culture, Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad, a human rights lawyer. The Cabinet also elected to appoint Minister of State Principal Collector of Customs Mohamed Aswan as Minister of State for Home Affairs, giving him a mandate to reform the police service.

The decision to form the committee was made following the new government’s first emergency cabinet meeting, held on Saturday shortly after DhiTV aired a story showing six men claiming they had been arrested and tortured in Atolhuvei detention centre. The men, several of whom displayed bruises to the TV station, alleged that police kept them face down, cuffed their hands and feet behind them, tied the cuffs and jumped on them.

The president’s press secretary Mohamed Zuhair said the decision to form the committee was not made “in response to a particular incident”, and was instead an attempt to implement reform after public complaints about the culture of the police force.

“All the cabinet ministers appointed to the committee are lawyers and will listen to any allegations and those made by the police as well,’ he said, adding that the committee would act “as a bridge” by speeding up the resolution of existing complaints.

Clash with PIC

Shahindha Ismail from the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) and former head of the Maldivian Detainee Network said she was unaware of why the committee was set up “because the police integrity commission has a mandate to investigate everything the committee was set up to do. They are duplicating our work.”

The PIC had “more powers by law [than cabinet] to conduct investigations,” she said. “I wish the government would give more thought to letting the PIC carry out its mandate. Right now we are stuck because of our financial difficulties, we have to go to the finance ministry for everything. We’ve sent reports on this to the president, because if the government want us to do our job they have to allow us to do it.”

Shahindha said while no one had made a complaint to the PIC, she “has a slight idea” that cabinet’s response was due to six people who were alleging they had been beaten in custody.

“When police took them to the criminal court to extend their detention periods [two] showed the judge marks and bruises on their bodies, saying they were beaten,” Shahindha said.

“My sense is that the beatings were quite severe because the judge apparently ordered them to be released because he felt they were not safe in the hands of the police – upon their release they contacted the media while they were in hospital.

“The original arrests were related to the physical sexual harrassment of women, and these people are no longer in police custody,” she added.

Shahindha said she had asked police for an official report into the matter “but they have not submitted it.”

Police spokesman Sergeant Ahmed Shiyam said the MPS was not commenting at this stage.

“A culture of torture”?

The government’s decision was surprising not only because it risked duplicating the work of the PIC, but because “these [beatings] appear to happen every day. I don’t know what’s special about this incident, I’m guessing the beatings were very severe,” Shahindha said.

Incidents of police brutality were usually confined to a minority of field officers, she said.

“I wouldn’t call it a culture any more. We find during our investigations that senior police are unware of what goes on in the field as to brutality. The problem is that some of the field officers are still carrying it around. It has reduced quite a lot, but now they do it inside and don’t let people see, unlike during the demonstrations when police used to beat people in broad daylight. Now it happens either in police vehicles or detention centres.”

She was positive about the appointment of Aswan to the new role of State Minister for Home Affairs, “although I would like to know more about the committee’s mandate.”

Zuhair said the committee’s aim was police reform following “public complaints about the culture of the force”, and “nothing to do with police integrity.”

For his part, Aswan said he had only just taken up the new post after being on holiday for two weeks and was still gathering information. The appointment was “sudden”, he said, adding that while he believed his law enforcement experience would be very valuable for his new role, he had “mixed feelings” about leaving his customs portfolio.

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American to be deported for alleged missionary activity

Maldives police have said they are seeking the deportation of a foreigner who allegedly sought to spread Christianity on the island of Kinbidhoo in Thaa Atoll.

Missionary activities are illegal under Maldivian law, as is the possession of non-Islamic religious materials beyond those ascribed for ‘personal use’.

Police sergeant Ahmed Shiyam said while no charges had yet been laid, it was normal practice “to send a person suspected of this to their country of origin while the case is under investigation.”

Shiyam declined to reveal specific details of the allegations “as the case is still under investigation”, but noted that “the whole community is very concerned about this.”

Kinbidhoo islanders identified the man as David Balk, and said he had been living on the island for the past several years with his wife and three children, aged 10-13 years old.

“They all speak fluent Dhivehi and generally keep to themselves, but are very helpful and involved in social activities like beach cleaning,” said Island Councillor Mohamed Naseem, adding that media reports describing the man as English “are wrong because he has an American passport.”

Naseem said the islanders believed he was the managing director of a travel agency in Male, and that “whatever they were doing must have been secret because nobody here has complained about him [spreading religion].”

He added that the police investigation had been going on for some time “and only now have the media picked it up.”

Another resident of the island, Ahmed Rasheed, said Balk’s neighbours had seen inside his house and claimed he had never spoken to them about religion. “I’ve mostly seen him out fishing,” Rasheed said. “He always helps out islanders and at times has even given financial help to people.”

Rasheed said he doubted many of the Kinbidhoo islanders “would even know what a bible looks like.”

“The day the police came David’s wife went to the neighbours house to ask them to take care of a plant. She told them police were there ‘saying we are spreading Christianity’, and that while they had a bible, it was for their personal use,” he said.

“The islanders’ attitude is that while [the Balks] never talked to them about religion, they are suspicious of why the family have lived on island for a couple of years without an ulterior motive. But they say the feeling is not enough reason to throw somebody off the island.”

Abdullah bin Mohamed Ibrahim, president of Islamic NGO Salaf Jamiyya, told Minivan News “we have been watching these people for a long time. We have known of them since 2003.”

He said Salaf’s investigation was still ongoing, but that the NGO was “certain” Balk was a missionary.

The missionary group has a “rotating membership” that comes to the country and settles, he said.

“They are working under a long-term plan. They have given their children Dhivehi names and some even have tattoos in Dhivehi.”

Ibrahim said Salaf was aware of missionary activity in the Maldives, and of missionaries approaching people to proselytise.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry for Islamic Affairs, Mohamed Didi, said that so far there had been no involvement in the case by the Ministry and “officially we don’t know anything.”

“If anyone complains we would ask the police to investigate,” he said, and if suspicions were confirmed, “basically the foreigner would be deported.”

Minivan News tried to contact Balk but was only able to speak to him briefly, as he said he was “going to spend time with my kids.”

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Police trace online stalker

Police have traced the internet connection of a man who allegedly threatened a 14-year-old girl online in an attempt to coerce her into “sexually indecent” behaviour.

“The perpetrator tried to demand the girl go to somewhere, and that he had photos and videos of her he would leak if she did not,” said Police Sergeant Shiyam.

Police said officers were initially approached by concerned friends of the girl during a school session on child abuse run by the family and child protection unit.

An investigation involving the police’s digital evidence unit tracked the man’s internet connection to his room, where police discovered three hard disks, two multimedia cards and two pen drives containing chat logs and emails threatening the girl.

“We are investigating how long it had been going on; we were lucky we found out about it so early,” Shiyam said.

The drives also contained nude photos and video clips of other young Maldivian girls, whom police said they were now trying to trace. Police said forensic evidence indicated that some of these photos had been uploaded to the internet.

The case has been forwarded to the Office of the Prosecutor General while police have released the perpetrator on a court order.

Investigating cases of online sexual abuse was “something new” for police, Shiyam said, “and something to be really concerned about.”

“Girls and boys are good at using the web and it’s not that easy to control and monitor them.”

Jeehan Mahmoud, spokesperson for Human Rights Commission Maldives (HRCM), said the Commission hoped that if found guilty the perpetrator would be charged under parliament’s new child abuse legislation that extends sentencing periods to a maximum of 25 years.

“Secondly, we want the concerned authorities to monitor the impact of multimedia on this type of crime more closely,” she said. “The Commission believes internet monitoring needs to be considered – it is something the state is obligated to do.”

Parents also needed to monitor their children’s use of the internet, she added. “Definitely parents need to be aware of what their children have access to. There hasn’t yet been a report into online [child abuse], but as it’s a growing trend perhaps it’s time to look into it further and find a way to curb it before it gets any bigger,” she said.

The Commission has received 10 reports of child abuse this year compared to four in the previous year, Jeehan said, “although it is difficult to say whether this due to an increase in reporting. People have certainly become better educated about human rights during the last four years.”

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