Dear Sir/Madam,
I am from The Republic of Maldives, supposedly a democratic country.
However, it is necessary to mention here that it does not allow the
existence of any other political party except for the ruling party. You
might be aware of many torture cases and human rights violations that take place in Maldives by its government. Amnesty International is aware of most of the political cases. However, to no avail. Recently, my family has been affected by the government's such unjust policies. They arrested my father Mohamad Zaki, on the 30th January 2002 for allegedly being involved in an electronic newsletter called ‘Sandhaanu’ which criticizes the Maldivian government’s policies and brings to light their misdemeanour.
He was arrested without a warrant and was taken to prison in Male’. In
addition he was denied the right to a lawyer to defend himself and
imprisoned without a charge. He was brought to court from prison and
charged for the first time on the 29th of May 2002. The charge was for
causing hatred in the Maldivian people’s mind towards the government. Again he was taken back to the prison and brought to court a second time on the 26th of June and this time charged with trying to assassinate the President’s character along with his ministers’. Both these times, he was not allowed a right to a defense lawyer and was not even informed that he was being taken to the court. He only found out when he saw the Court building himself! Finally, on the 7th of July 2002, he was brought to the Criminal Court and charged with life imprisonment.
In 1989 during the election for Male’s Member of Parliament one man,
Dr.Waheed—(Now Head of UNICEF Asia) dared to contend for the seat. He was competing against the President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s brother-in-law Ilyas Ibrahim, who was also the Defense Minister at the time. Dr.Waheed is married to my father’s cousin and therefore he supported and helped to campaign for Dr.Waheed, who won the election by a majority vote. This deeply upset the president as he had always maintained his relatives and close friends as his ministers and Members of the Parliament. Thus, he wanted to arrest all the people involved in campaigning for Dr.Waheed and arrested a lot of people. Luckily my father managed to escape before they could reach him. Soon after, the whole family joined him and settled in Malaysia in 1990 and has been living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia since then. The Maldivian Government cancelled his passport and he was unable to travel for almost 2 years. After many letters of appeals, the President decided to forgive him as Presidential elections were drawing near and he wanted to show people his forgiving character.
My father is a prominent businessman in Maldives and has his shipping and trade business in Malaysia as well. He holds permanent residency in
Malaysia. It was during one of his business trips to the Maldives when they arrested him. While he was at his residence, it was raided by armed police officers that did not have any warrant for search or arrest. They took away his computer and also searched his working premises and the computers there. No explanation was given as to why he was being arrested.
Simultaneously, Malaysian Interpol officers raided his office in Malaysia, and arrested his 18-year-old son Mazeen Mohamad Zaki without any warrant. Mazeen was on the Internet at that time. In addition, they also took away his computer in the office and took his son to the police station before bringing him home (in Kuala Lumpur) with them. When the officers came home with my brother, they informed the family that he was under arrest. Then the officers searched the house again without any warrant.
There were about 8 or more officers who had come in 3 different cars. Rest of the family members were told to co-operate or else face certain
consequences. When we questioned as to why they had arrested Mazeen, their reply was that they were ordered to arrest whoever was on the computer! They searched the whole house and took a personal computer and a laptop, which they have only returned on the 16th of August and that too without certain hard wares.
The family was told that their orders had come right from the 'top' and that they were co-operating with the Maldivian government's request. In addition, that it was something to do with my father and also that they would be taking my brother to the lock-up but that he would be treated well. They took him that evening and locked him up with the drug users, where he was only allowed to wear his underpants and had to sleep on the concrete floor. Moreover one guy was beaten in front of him.
The next day, the family contacted their lawyer and found out that Mazeen had been arrested under Malaysian law section 125 that deals with conspiracy to kill the king! That was a major shock as we were not even aware who the new Malaysian king was! That morning they transfered him to the Police Head Quarters (Bukit Aman), Kuala Lumpur for questioning. There he happened to see two Maldivian police officers. Finally, after intensive questioning and discovering that he can't even read his own language 'dhivehi' (Maldivian language), they released him on police bail at around 4.30pm.
This incidence has severely affected him psychologically, especially in his studies.
Consequently, we have found out that my father Mohamad Zaki, had been
arrested over an electronic newsletter called 'Sandhaanu' that had been
circulating through the Internet. This particular monthly newsletter
criticises various government policies and highlights many torture cases. At this point I would like to stress that this newsletter was only distributed through the Internet and was never printed. In addition, it was only forwarded to those who requested to receive it and they had given their e-mail addresses willingly. Initially he was locked up in the prison in the capital, Male, and then they transferred him to the island Dhoonidhoo which is the main prison in Maldives. According to the law in Maldives, a person can’t be kept under arrest for more than 90 days without being charged. However, since he was brought to court and charged first only on the 29th of May, they kept him without a charge for nearly 120 days.
On the 27th June, he was transferred to another island named Maafushi and was locked up in the prison there. In all three places, he had been under solitary confinement. The prison cell there was worse than the previous one as it was only the size of 4’ by 6’, and he had to sleep on the concrete floor. He was locked up in prison for more than 5 months, before being sentenced for Life. After being sentenced, he was transferred to another cell in Maafushi prison. This place had been an old garment warehouse and now they have made three large cells out of it. In each cell there are about 100 prisoners. There is no ventilation and it is extremely hot in there. In addition, they are only given 5 litres of water daily for bathing, drinking and washing. In Maafushi Prison, there are different classes of prisons, starting from A – D block. According to the law in Maldives, prisoners who are sentenced for a long period are kept in Block A as it is in a better condition. However, my father has been locked up in Block C with all the drug addicts and thieves. Again they have to sleep on the hard concrete
floor and drink tap water, which in Maldives is not safe unless boiled. His wife is allowed to spend a night with him once a month and the rest of the family is allowed to visit him only for an hour per month.
Our life has been deeply affected by this injustice inflicted upon us and my father’s business is severely affected due to this. In addition, my brothers can't even return to Maldives, for fear of being arrested.
They had also arrested Mohamad Zaki’s younger brother Ismail Zaki, under the same allegation and kept him in prison for 2 weeks and then under house arrest. However, they have released him since as they had discovered no evidence against him. However, they had withheld his passport and only returned it to him on the 7th of July 2002, after sentencing my father. His wife and kids had to suffer for more than 5 months for no reason.
Along with my father Mohamad Zaki, they had also arrested two other men who were sentenced for life along with him. The charges against them according to a document they were given after being charged are:
1. For insulting the President and his government
2. Trying to overthrow the government by calling out to the people to come forward and fight
3. Causing hatred in the people's minds towards the government by forming a newsletter called 'sandhaanu'
4. Spreading false news
5. For forwarding this newsletter to others through e-mail
Their names are Ibrahim Luthfee and Ahmad Didi (Ahamadhee). In addition, a girl named Fathimath Nisreen, 21 years of age was arrested under the same allegations. She was sentenced to 10 years in Prison. Her charges are as follows:
1. For writing false information in articles in Sandhaanu
2. For expressing her dissatisfaction with the government's policies
3. Trying to overthrow the government by calling out to the people to come forward and fight
4. For supporting the Sandhaanu originators
All four prisoners were brought to court together on the three occasions. During the second time in court, Ibrahim Luthfee and Ahmad Didi confessed to being the only writers and originators for Sandhanu. They also said that they could prove everything that has been written in sandhaanu while Mohamad Zaki confessed to only forwarding it to the e-mail addresses of people who had requested for it. He had also requested the right for a lawyer since he was not familiar with the law in Maldives. However he was denied as the judge told him that the court did not allow lawyers for those being charged.
Inspite of only forwarding Sandhaanu, they have given the same Life
sentence to my father, which they have given to the other two. It is the same sentence they gave to the people who had attempted a coup in 1988 and killed several people.
Inspite of being sentenced for life, on the 7th of July 2002 they brought my father again to Male’ the capital of Maldives, for further questioning. This time however it was not regarding ‘Sandhaanu’, but they were inquiring about his ship named ‘MV.Mazeena’ which he had owned in 1995. They wanted to know who the captain of the ship then was and also about a cement shipment to Vietnam. We fear that they are trying to justify the life sentence by trying to find other avenues whereby they can further charge him with.
Amnesty International is looking into the matter, however we feel that more pressure should be put on the government of Maldives, from different human rights bodies in order to seek justice.
So we appeal to you to please to look in to the matter and help us fight to release my father Mohamad Zaki and the others. They all have been arrested allegedly for the involvement in a non-published Internet newsletter, which exercised the freedom of speech.
Further information can be accessed on the web site:
www.maldivesculture.com
Yours truly,
Miss A. Mazeena Zaki