Jail officers helping inmates bring in “drugs, phones”

“Three inmates and several jail officers we suspect [to be involved] have been moved to Dhoonidhu [prison] for investigation,” Adil said.

Inmates in Male’ Prison last week damaged their cells after jail officers seized mobile phones and other contraband. Adil said the trouble started after inmates refused to hand over a mobile phone.

”Jail officers found a mobile phone inside a cell, and they checked other cells,” Adil said. ”Officers then discovered drugs in another cell.”

Adil said that after the officers took the mobile phone inmates started to protest.

”They broke the flush tanks in the toilet and damaged other jail property,” he said, adding that the inmates were eventually controlled with the help of police.

He refuted a report published in Haveeru that claimed the protest was started after a “delay in financial transactions between a family and the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Service (DPRS)”.

Police sub Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said the DPRS requested help from police to control the inmates during the incident.

Nobody was injured during the riot, he noted.

Director of the DRPS Saudh Abdul Kareem meanwhile refused to comment on the incident, claiming that Minivan News “causes me trouble by always disturbing me to clarify cases.”