Reference No: 06/02/2013
02 February 2013

MDP Condemns Extension of Arbitrary Arrests

The Maldivian Democratic Party condemns the arbitrary extension of arrest of 14 individuals, arrested from the Usfasgandu area in Male’ yesterday evening. MDP expresses grave concern at the politically motivated nature of the arrests which saw Police Special Operations officers entering the crowd, targeting, and detaining MDP’s Youth Wing President, Aminath Shauna and Male’ city Councilor for Maafannu Hulhangu, Mohamed Falah while they were standing clearly behind police barricades.

All 14 individuals arrested yesterday had their detentions extended this afternoon upon the request of the Police, who cited that releasing them would result in a threat to society.

Lawyers representing the 14 individuals stated that the defence’s arguments and habeas corpus cases filed on behalf of the detainees were not considered in the court’s ruling. Instead, the ruling was determined by a singular statement provided by the Police, which detainees state, was biased and lacking in evidence. No evidence against the detainees was disclosed.

The MDP calls for the immediate release of all those arrested yesterday and strongly urges the Police to stop carrying out politically motivated detentions and the obstruction of peaceful political activity.

‘It is evident that a Police force that has not been held accountable for the actions of mutiny and brutality that some of their members carried out in February 2012, will not be one that dutifully upholds the law. The culture of impunity imposed and facilitated in the Maldives by the Waheed administration serves only to protect the perpetrators of crime and does not bode well for the credibility of law enforcement agencies in the country. We condemn in the harshest terms the targeted arbitrary detentions carried out by the Police and the lack of due process facilitated by the Courts’, said MDP Spokesperson for International Affairs, Hamid Abdul Ghafoor.

ENDS