54 cases of torture filed against police
The 54 cases alleging torture by the police included 13 cases of physical abuse during arrest, 26 cases of custodial abuse, 15 cases of physical abuse during protests, and one case of physical abuse during transfer to court for a remand hearing.
01 Aug 2015, 9:00 AM
The Maldives Police Service was accused in 54 out of 56 cases of torture submitted to the human rights watchdog between July 2014 and June 2015, the Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) has revealed in its second annual anti-torture report.
The commission completed investigations into 37 cases and sent four cases for prosecution, the report stated, but the prosecutor general’s office declined to prosecute any of the cases due to insufficient evidence.
Even in cases where signs of abuse were visible on the victim’s body, the commission noted difficulties in identifying the perpetrator from among the police officers on duty at the time of the incident. The report noted that the perpetrator must be identified for prosecution.
The HRCM determined that there were no acts of torture in 33 cases.
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