Maldives Police Service has visited to local media outlets for publishing news related to former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Ghafoor's statement.
Authorities had reached out to media outlets after Maldives Correctional Service had warned to take strict action against media channels publishing news quoting prisoner statements or anecdotes.
Officers of Maldives Police had visited to Avas Online's office without prior warning or notification to collect statements related to the aforementioned news. Similarly officers had visited prominent online news "Mihaaru" to collect statements on how the outlet received the document.
Police media officer Ahmed Shifan had confirmed the authority was "looking into the matter" of Adeeb's statement getting published in local media, however he refused to describe the action as "active investigation."
Former VP's statement was publicized initially by his lawyers which was then published by several local media outlets quoting Adeeb. His lawyer, Moosa Siraj had tweeted a screenshot of the statement as well. The former VP had released the statement following the 1000-day arbitrary detention of both Ahmed Faris Maumoon and Adaalath Party leader Sheikh Imran Abdullah.
VP Adeeb had raised several allegations against incumbent President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.
Maldives Correctional Service released a counter-statement citing media outlets violating the procedure and regulations of quoting statements of prisoners will be penalized accordingly.
