Home Ministry condemns violence against inmates, promises action

Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a statement condemning the excessive use of force by guards at Maafushi Prison and promising an overhaul of the prison system in order to prevent such an incident from happening again.

Excessive force was used on inmates in response to an attack on a prison guard carried out by a sole inmate on Thursday.

Ministry of Home Affairs, in a statement this Saturday, said that the Maldivian administration, did not, in any way, condone the excessive use of force by the prison guards.

It said that the Maldivian administration condemned the excessive use of force, and will conduct a thorough investigation to hold the perpetrators accountable.

“….and we assure the beloved Maldivian people that the administration will make necessary reforms to the prison system to prevent such incidents from happening again,” pledged the ministry in its statement.

The statement also says that Commissioner of Prisons as well as senior officials from the department visited the prison for an assessment as soon as the incident was reported to the ministry on Thursday.

According to the ministry, the assessment had revealed a prison guard was injured in an attack, and that some of the prison guards used excessive force resulting in injuries to inmates; and the officials had ordered for immediate medical attention to the injured inmates.

Families of inmates report that some of the prison guards forcibly removed inmates from their cells and proceeded to commit acts of brutality such as shaving off their heads, using pepper spray on their genitals, beating them with batons and other forms of torture.

Maldives Correctional Service has denied its guards shaved off heads of inmate or did anything similar.