Some committees aim their efforts at defaming the police: Riyaz

Commissioner of Police Abdullah Riyaz has said that some parliament committees, including the Committee on Oversight of the Government, work to defame the police.

Riyaz made this comment while speaking at a function held in Adh. Fenfushi yesterday afternoon, after the opening ceremony of the island’s police station.

Riyaz said that the Government Oversight Committee summons persons of different ranks and persecutes them.

“The Government Oversight Committee summons persons of different ranks to the committee, persecutes them, harasses them, and uses offensive language to address them,” he said.

Riyaz said that the constitution stipulates that the police should only be held accountable to the parliament 241 committee.

He said that the intentions of the Government Oversight Committee when it summons police officers are not positive, and that the attorney general had advised that police officers cannot be summoned to that committee for questioning.

“I sent a letter last week. In the letter I requested her to look into the matter and give advice,” he said.

Riyaz said that he carries out the responsibilities of a police commissioner ‘without any political influence whatsoever’ and that the police institution has never in the past been run as independently as it is being run today.

“I have been in this sector for about 24 years now. In my life I’ve never seen the police institution, when providing the service of the Maldives Police Service the way it wants, have the opportunity to conduct operations independently and free of political influence,” he said.

Riyaz assumed the post of police commissioner when Mohamed Waheed became president.