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On 26 February, President Gayyoom's office made the following email announcement: The President leaves for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting The President left last night to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The Meeting will be held in Coolum Beach, Australia. The President and the First Lady were seen-off at Male' International Airport by the Chief Justice and the President of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Ministers, State Ministers, State Dignitaries and senior Government officials. On 3 March, the President's office emailed this correction: The President's Office has announced today that the President will not be attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Coolum, Australia The President who had arrived with the First Lady in Singapore some days ago, was not able to make the trip to Coolum, because his wife had to undergo some medical investigations in Singapore. The President has written to the Australian Prime Minister Mr. John Howard about his inability to attend the meeting.

President Gayyoom and wife, Nasreena Ibrahim

A senior official close to the office of President Gayyoom has confirmed under strict condition of anonymity that Gayyoom's decision not to attend the current CHOGM in Australia is related to recent publication of his regime's excesses.

The plan from the beginning was for Gayyoom to travel as far as Singapore and announce that his wife had to receive unforeseen medical attention. The nature of Mrs Gayyoom's alleged mystery illness is unknown even to close aides in Gayyoom's entourage, according to the same source.

Moir cartoon Sydney Morning Herald 4 March 2002

The Gayyoom regime is increasingly wary of reports of gross human rights violations, misuse of Western aid, and other corrupt practices of the regime published in web sites based in Australia and New Zealand. It was feared that Australian and New Zealand journalists covering the CHOGM would have a field day at Gayyoom's expense.

Brutal methods of torture allegedly employed by Gayyoom have recently re-emerged and come to the attention of the West. While it is claimed that male victims are usually tortured only physically, women prisoners are routinely subjected to humiliating psychological torture as well. Recently a woman prisoner was allegedly stripped naked, tied with bunches of leaves around her body and manacled inside a goat's pen in one of the prison islands. Jeering male soldiers and officers of the NSS watched as the goats stripped the victim naked by grazing on the leaves. She was then dragged out and gang-raped.

President Gayyoom in NSS uniform. More information about this photo

It is claimed that until about the mid-1990's Gayyoom and other senior officers of the NSS authorised such degrading torture in writing. Bound folios were used to record these authorisations. The folios are now missing from the NSS. A number of these folios were smuggled out by a very senior officer of the NSS and are now held in a vault in Singapore.

Details have also emerged of the actual location of the interrogation chambers in Malé where the alleged torture of Maldivian prisoners occurs. These chambers are in the basement of the Shaheed Hussain Adam Building in which the NSS HQ is stationed behind the walls of the Malé fort. The Police Commissioner is located on the fourth floor, while Defence personnel occupy the fifth floor. The basement of this building has three stainless-steel blocks with high pressure water nozzles. There are also individual cells in the same level, and two rooms designated as 'VIP'.

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