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Malaysia helped Maldives President
put emailer on block This article was originally published on the Internet as a letter. It has been edited very slightly by Maldives Culture editors; headline by Maldives Culture
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.
He was arrested without a warrant and was taken to prison in Malé. In addition he was denied the right to a lawyer to defend himself and imprisoned without a charge for four months. He was brought to court from prison and charged for the first time on 29 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 26 June 2002, this time to be charged with trying to assassinate the President’s character, and the reputation of his ministers. During both these court appearances, he was not allowed the 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! Finally on the 7 July 2002, he was brought to the Criminal Court and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The election of Dr. Waheed deeply upset President Gayyoom as he was used to having his relatives and close friends as ministers and members of the parliament. Therefore, Gayyoom arrested a lot of people who were involved in campaigning for Dr. Waheed. Luckily my father, Mohamed Zaki, managed to escape before the NSS could arrest 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 appeals, Gayyoom decided to forgive him because presidential elections were drawing near, and he wanted to show the people his 'forgiving' character. My father is a prominent businessman in Maldives and runs a 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 Gayyoom's NSS arrested him. While my father was at his residence in Malé, it was raided by armed police officers who did not have any warrant for search or arrest. They took away his computer and also searched his office premises in Malé 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 at the office and took his son to the police station before taking to home in Kuala Lumpur. When these 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. The rest of the family members were told to co-operate or else they would 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 laptop, which they have only returned on the 16 August, without certain hardware. 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, they said it was something to do with my father, and they would be taking my brother to the lock-up but he would be treated well. They took him away that evening and locked him up with 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 my brother 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 Mazeen to Police Head Quarters (Bukit Aman) in Kuala Lumpur for questioning. There he saw two Maldivian police officers. Finally, after intensive questioning and discovering that he couldn't read Maldivian Dhivehi thaana script, they released him on police bail at around 4.30pm. This incident has severely affected him psychologically, and has ruined 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 on the Internet. This newsletter criticised various government policies and highlighted 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 it and they had given their e-mail addresses willingly. Initially he was locked up in the prison in the capital, Malé, 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 29 May, they kept him without a charge for nearly 120 days. On 27 June, he was transferred to another island named Maafushi and was locked up in prison there. In all three places, he was under solitary confinement. The prison cell at Maafushi was worse than the previous one as it was only 4' by 6', and he had to sleep on the concrete floor. He was locked up for more than 5 months, and then given a life sentence. After being sentenced, he was transferred to another cell in Maafushi prison. This place had been an old garment warehouse and now they had 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 addition, they are only given 5 litres of water daily for bathing, drinking and washing. In Maafushi Prison, there are different classes of cells, divided up into A,B,C and D blocks. According to the practice in Maldives, prisoners who are sentenced for a long period are kept in A Block because it was in better condition. However, my father was locked up in C Block among the drug addicts and thieves. Again they had to sleep on the hard concrete floor and drink unsafe tap water. 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 family life and businesses have been deeply affected by this injustice inflicted upon us. In addition, my brothers can't even return to Maldives, for fear of being arrested. Gayyoom's NSS also arrested Mohamed 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 because they discovered no evidence against him. However, they withheld his passport and only returned it to him on the 7 July 2002, after sentencing my father. Ismail Zaki's wife and kids had to suffer for more than 5 months for no reason. Along with my father Mohamad Zaki, they also arrested two other men who were sentenced to life imprisonment with him. According to a document they were given after being charged, the allegations against them were: 1. 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. The name of the other two are Ibrahim Luthfee (who escaped from police custody in May 2003 and has been granted political refugee status by the UNHCR) and Ahmad Didi (from Ahamadhee house). In addition, a young woman named Fathimath Nisreen, 21, was arrested under the same allegations. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Her charges are as follows: 1. Writing false information in articles in 'Sandhaanu'. 2. 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. 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 writers and originators of 'Sandhaanu'. They also said they could prove everything written in 'Sandhaanu'. Mohamad Zaki confessed only to forwarding it to the e-mail addresses of people who had requested it. He had also requested to be represented by a lawyer because he was not familiar with the law in Maldives. However this was denied. The judge told him the court did not allow lawyers for those being charged. In spite of only forwarding 'Sandhaanu' by email, my father was given the same life sentence as the other two. It is the same sentence the Gayyoom regine gave to the people who had attempted a coup and killed several people in 1988. After being sentenced for life, on the 7 July 2002 Gayyoom's NSS brought my father again to the capital Malé for further questioning. This time it was about '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 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 for people to please help us to release my father Mohamed Zaki and the others. They have all been arrested for involvement in an unpublished Internet newsletter, which exercised freedom of speech. |
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Maldives Culture is an independent internet magazine of Maldive cultural issues.
Editors and translators: Michael O'Shea and Fareesha Abdulla, Australia
We invite contributions from Maldivians and others interested in Maldives.
Contributions and comments - mc_editors@hotmail.com
