:: Dhivehi Observer :: Peoples Press ::

Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) threatens Gayyoom with UK torture cases, if reformers charged in Maldives

by DO editorial staff - 27 October 2004

Opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) spokesman Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) is threatening to take claims of torture against members of the government of Maldives to the UK Attorney General's office in London.

'We have been hearing a lot about torture being carried out in the prisons of Maldives,' Nasheed writes today in a Dhivehi letter published this morning by Dhivehi Observer website. 'I am one of the victims of this torture,' he claims.

A long-term supporter of democratic and legal reforms in Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed now lives in self-imposed exile after leaving Maldives in 2003 when the MDP was officially formed. It is certain that Nasheed would also be in jail if he had remained in Male'. He travels regularly between the Sri Lankan headquarters of the MDP and the party's London organisation, and has close ties with the important levels of UK government.

In his Dhivehi letter addressed to the people of Maldives, Nasheed says President Gayyoom signed the UN Convention against Torture in April 2004 but four months later in August, peaceful people were arrested and tortured, and serious charges were now being prepared against some of these detainees by the Maldives attorney general.

Nasheed says he has been trying to bring an end to torture in Maldives for years without success. 'I have been advised that I should take these torture allegations to the Attorney General's office in the UK.' Nasheed's legal advice comes in part from lawyers who helped draft the Convention.

'Maldivians are now entitled to lodge a UK claim of torture against torturers in Maldives,' he says. 'Someone accused of torture in Maldives can be tried in a UK court if the claim is made in the UK.'

'A Maldivian accused of torture in a UK court can be arrested if the accused person arrives in London. If that person visits another country where the UK has signed an agreement allowing exchange of criminals and accused people, the UK government can ask for that person's extradition to UK.'

Nasheed says he has hesitated in the past to make these allegations public because of the problems it will bring to the Maldives government generally. 'I am concerned about the bitter consequences of this,' Nasheed writes. 'Before proceeding with legal action I will be considering my options carefully.'