The opposition coalition stated on Monday that Commissioner of Prisons Abdulla Munaz and Minister of Home Affairs Imran Abdulla should resign from their posts following their inability to rehabilitate correctional facilities.
There have been recent talks of an incident occurring at Maafushi jail wherein police officers entered jail cells, abusing them and utilizing tear gas and pepper spray. However, Correction has stated that there have been no interactions of the sort.
After the spread of these rumors, the opposition coalition released a statement claiming that such inhuman treatment towards convicts is not one that the coalition would ever regard or approve.
The coalition has called for the improvement of prison conditions in order to ensure the safety and security of their leader and former President Yameen Abdul Gayyoom who is currently serving his five year sentence for money laundering.
Highlighting that there had been such occurrences in the past, the coalition noted how the level of inaction had resulted in recurrent and increasing accounts of such conduct at the jail.
The statement further stressed the government's failure in ensuring proper jail operations, and the security of convicts. As such, they called for the resignation of both the Home Minister and Commissioner of Prisons,
In light of these incidents, the Inspector of Correctional Service Ahmed Mohamed stated that after monitoring the issues between Maafushi jail officers and remand jail officers, they then discovered that force was used due to the convicts interference in search operations.
Human Rights Commission (HRCM) have also affirmed to have heard these talks of conflict in Maafushi jail, further stating that the matter is currently under investigation. As this is an ongoing investigation, no further details were provided.
