Back to "Have your say" From: “aisha mahmood” <mazwaj@hotmail.com> To: <hraic@hraic.org> Subject: seeking justice Date: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 11:04 PM Dear
Sir/Madam, I am
from The Republic of Maldives, supposedly a democratic country. However, it is necessary to mention here that
it does not allow the existence of any other political party except for the
ruling party. 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. Recently, my
family and me have been affected by our government’s such unjust policies. They arrested my father Mohamad Zaki, on the
30th January 2002 for allegedly being involved in an electronic
newsletter called ‘Sandhaanu’ which criticizes the Maldivian government’s
policies and brings to light their misdemeanour. He was
arrested without a warrant and was taken to prison in Male’. He was denied the right to a lawyer to defend
himself and imprisoned without a charge.
He was brought to court from prison and charged for the first time on
the 29th of 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 the 26th of June and
this time charged with trying to assassinate the President’s character along
with his ministers’. Both these times, he was not allowed a right to a defense lawyer. Finally, on the 7th of July 2002,
he was brought to court again and charged with life imprisonment. In 1989
during the election for Male’s Member of Parliament one man, Dr.Waheed—(Now
working for UNICEF Asia) dared to contend for the seat. He was competing
against the President’s brother-in-law Ilyas Ibrahim, who was also the Defense
Minister at the time. Dr.Waheed is
married to my dad’s cousin and dad supported and helped to campaign for
Dr.Waheed, who won the election by a majority vote. This deeply upset the
president as he had always maintained his relatives and close friends as his
ministers and members of the Parliament. Thus, he wanted to arrest all the
people involved in campaigning for Dr.Waheed and arrested a lot of people.
Luckily dad managed to escape before they could reach him. Soon after, the
whole family joined him and we all settled in Malaysia in 1990 and have been
living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia since then. The Maldivian Government cancelled
dad’s passport and he was unable to travel for more than a year. After many letters
of appeals, the President decided to forgive dad as his Presidential elections
were drawing near and he wanted to show people his Goodwill. My
father is a prominent businessman in Maldives and has his 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 they arrested him. While
he was at the house, it was raided by armed police officers that did not have
any warrant for search or arrest. They took away his computer and also searched
his working premises and the computers there. No explanation was given as to why he was being arrested. Simultaneously,
Malaysian Interpol officers raided dad’s 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 my dad’s computer in the office and took his son
to the police station before bringing him home with them. When the officers
came home with my brother, they informed us that he was under arrest. Then the
officers searched our house again without any warrant. There
were about 8 or more officers who had come in 3 different cars. We were told to
co-operate or else face certain consequences. When we questioned as to why they
had arrested our brother, their reply was that they were ordered to arrest
whoever was on the computer! They searched the whole house and took our
personal computer and a laptop, which they have not given back until today. We were
told that their orders had come right from the ‘top’ and that they were
co-operating with the Maldivian government’s request. We were also told that it
was something to do with my dad and also that they would be taking my brother
to the lock-up but that he would be treated well. They took him that evening
and locked him up with the drug users, where he was only allowed to wear his
underwear and had to sleep on the concrete floor. Moreover one guy was beaten in front of him. The next
day, we contacted our lawyer and we found out that he 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 Malaysian king was! That
morning they transfered him to the Police Head Quarters (Bukit Aman), Kuala
Lumpur for questioning. There he happened to see two Maldivian police officers.
Finally, after intensive questioning and discovering that he can’t even read
his own language ‘dhivehi’ (Maldivian language), they released him on police
bail at around 4.30pm. This
incidence has severely affected him psychologically, especially in his studies. Consequently,
we have found out that our dad had been arrested over an electronic newsletter
called ‘Sandhaanu’ that had been circulating through the Internet. This
particular monthly newsletter criticises various government policies and
highlights 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 to receive it and they
had given their e-mail addresses. Initially
he was locked up in the prison in the capital, Male, 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 charging. However, since he was brought to court and charged first only
on the 29th of May, they kept him without a charge for nearly 120
days. On the
27th June, he was transferred to another island named Maafushi and was
locked up in the prison there. In all three places, he had been under solitary
confinement. The prison cell there was worse than the previous one as it was
only the size of 4’ by 4’, and he had to sleep on the concrete floor. He was
locked up in prison for more than 5 months, before being sentenced for Life. In
Maafushi prison, there are different classes of prisons, starting from A – D
block. According to the law in Maldives, prisoners who are sentenced for a long
period are kept in Block A as it is in a better condition. However, my dad has
been locked up in Block C with all the drug addicts and thieves. Again they
have to sleep on the hard concrete floor and drink tap water, which in Maldives
is not safe unless boiled. His family is allowed to visit him only once a month
and only for 2 hours! Our life
has been deeply affected by this injustice inflicted upon us and dad’s business
is severely affected due to this. In addition, we can’t even return to our
country in fear of being arrested. They had
also arrested my uncle Ismail Zaki under the same allegation, but since had
released him as they had found no evidence against him. However, they had withheld his passport and only gave it back on the 7th of July 2002,
after sentencing my dad. His family had to suffer for more than 5 months for no
reason. Along
with my father Mohamad Zaki, they had also arrested two other men who were
sentenced for life along with him. The charges against them according to a
document they were given after being charged are: 1. For 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 Their
names are Ibrahim Luthfee and Ahmad Didi (Ahamadhee). In addition, a girl named
Fathimath Nisreen, 21 years of age was arrested under the same allegations. She was sentenced to 10 years in Prison. Her
charges are as follows: 1. For writing false information in articles in
Sandhaanu 2. For 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. For supporting the Sandhaanu originators All four
prisoners were brought to court together on the three occasions. During the second time in court, Luthfee and
Ahmad Didi confessed to being the only writers and originators for Sandhanu.
They also said that they could prove everything that has been written in
sandhaanu while dad confessed to only forwarding it to the e-mail addresses of
people who had requested for it. Inspite
of this, they have given the same Life sentence to all three of them. It is the
same sentence they gave to the people who had attempted a coup in 1988 and
killed several people. Inspite
of being sentenced for life already, today (9th July 2002) they brought
my dad to Male’ the capital of Maldives, for further questioning. This time however it was not regarding the
‘Sandhaanu’, but they were inquiring about his ship named ‘MV.Mazeena’ which he
owned in 1995. They wanted to know who the captain of the ship then 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 to you to please to look in to the matter and help us fight to release
my father Mohamad Zaki and the others. They all have been arrested allegedly
for the involvement in a non-published Internet newsletter, which exercised the
freedom of speech. Further
information can be accessed on the web site: Yours
truly, A.
Mazeena Zaki 5
Jalan Kent Tiga Kuala
Lumpur 54000,
Malaysia Tel.
603-26985334 / 603-26946027 E-mail: mazwaj@hotmail.com Join the
world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.