Inmates were subjected to torture under a widely planned system- Police

Maldives Police Service has announced that the torture, inhumane treatment including physical and psychological coercion, in some cases tantamount to death that the inmates were subjected to in the former regime were done under a widely planned system.

Police said that this in a press statement released yesterday on the investigation of the inmates subjected to torture and ill-treatment while in the former regime’s prisons.

Police also announced that a center has been established on Velaanaage 12^th Floor to conduct interviews with former prisoners who were subjected to torture to detail the torture and ill-treatment inflicted on prisoners while in the prisons during the previous government.

According to the evidences the methods of torture have been used during the former regime on prisoners, varied only according to the torturers’ imaginations.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Commission recently announced that they have received evidence for torture and inhumane treatment of inmates by the previous government. The Commission said that during their investigations, on 16 May, 2011 they received photographs that can be used as evidence that inmates were subjected to a process of physical and psychological coercion, in some cases tantamount to torture by the former regime.

Presidential Commission also said that they received information that some inmates died because of the abuse, cruelty, maltreatment, assault on them by the Police during the regime of Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom. They noted that international human rights conventions, of which the Maldives are a part of, provide explicit protections for the detainees, including the right to be free from coercive interrogation, to receive a fair trial if charged with a criminal offense.

Mysterious disappearance of Abdulla Anees is an important case in investigating the alleged torture, violation of human rights and killing of many inmates during the previous 30 year dictatorial regime.

Meanwhile, the commission found that human bones discovered in the site of former Gaamaadhoo prison on 19 September 2009 were that of Abdulla Anees of Vaavu Atoll Keyodhoo Bashigasdhoshuge.