Police used excessive force when arresting Nasheed- Amnesty

Amnesty UK issues false reports on behalf of MDP- Govt

Amnesty International says it is concerned by reports that police in the Maldives used excessive force when arresting ex-President Mohamed Nasheed, reports Associated Press.

AP also stated that Amnesty International’s statement noted that Nasheed was taken into custody Monday after he twice failed to appear in court to face charges that he illegally ordered the arrest of a judge while in office.

An Amnesty researcher for the country said Tuesday: "We are deeply concerned about the reports of some police using violence around Mohamad Nasheed's arrest, despite neither him nor his supporters offering any resistance."

In response to this statement of Amnesty the government stated that these statements are only issued by Amnesty International’s UK branch. Press Secretary Abbas Adil Riza said that this branch’s representative in Maldives is a Maldivian named Abbas Faiz who is a close friend of former President Nasheed. He said that Faiz acts as an activist of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

“MDP issues statements and they are followed by statements in the name of Amnesty. When CoNI was going to issue their report these people they voiced against it claiming that they will not accept it without their representative in the commission. But when they issue reports in matters related to the government they do not even discuss it with the government. How is this not a contradiction? They claim that Nasheed is a prisoner of conscience. And they also said that Didi who is now in the government is a prisoner of conscience. However now they don’t want to hear what Didi says,” he said.

Abbas said that the group has gone overboard in their lies and they even claimed that pepper spray was used by the police during Nasheed’s arrest although the police never used pepper spray in the whole operation.

Meanwhile, the group earlier also raised concerns about alleged police brutality against protesters this year under the new government. The Police denied the allegations of Amnesty.