Maldives Police Services says the Prosecutor General’s Office has charged 8 police officers for allegedly assaulting a foreigner in an incident that was reported last July.
Police said that it had conducted a criminal investigation of the alleged assault that occurred in a house in Male’ and that police have asked the PG office to charge 11 officers in relation to the alleged assault. Police said that the PG office only accepted charges for 8 officers.
It also said that as officers investigated belonged to the Crime Command of the police service, the investigation into the alleged assault was carried out by a team of Investigative Officers that did not belong to the Crime Command.
Meanwhile, Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem confirmed that the case of the 8 officers has now been sent to court and that the case was submitted to the PG office on the 31st of October 2019. In a tweet, he also said that the trial was ongoing and that the accused officers are still in service.
Public voiced outrage when a video clip of a group of police officers assaulting a suspect of crime started circulating on social media. The officers had entered M. Ujaalaa to administer a search warrant to conduct a narcotics raid. In the video, the officers are seen physically assaulting a migrant worker multiple times using their bare hands and on one occasion kicking the fallen worker with their foot.
