Male’, Maldives – The team of lawyers representing the victim of the infamous safari rape case, have filed a case against Maldives Police Service, with the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO), National Integrity Commission (NIC), and Maldives Police Service (MPS) itself.
The complaints were filed against Maldives Police Service after a video was mistakenly sent to the lawyers over Skype, by the investigation officers of Maldives Police Service, who were handling the case. The video showed a female, who is believed to be one of the investigation officers, who talked mocked the victim and her lawyers, after which she proceeded to talk about modifying the victim’s statement. A male’s voice could also be heard in the video who was conversing with the female officer seen in the video about the case.
The matter was brought to light after the lawyers decided to come forward with the issue on social media, having have posted it on Twitter. One of the lawyer’s of the victim, Uza. Shafeea Riza said that she and the other lawyer handling the case, Uza. Noorbaan Fahmy have remained patient in hope of justice, despite repeated gross negligence by Maldives Police Service, and called the actions of the officers seen in the video as “clear evidence of intention of the police in this case”.
Despite repeated gross negligence by @PoliceMv in #SafariRapeCase @Noorbaan & I have remained patient in the hope of justice. This video of IOs mocking lawyers of a victim & trying to tamper with victim's statement, is clear evidence of intention of the police in this case. pic.twitter.com/3wckuCWbBX
— Shafeea Riza (@ShafeeaRiza) October 11, 2020
Note: This video seems to be sent unintentionally via Skype by IO as they clearly wouldn’t have wanted us to hear all this in the first place.
— Shafeea Riza (@ShafeeaRiza) October 11, 2020
Despite public outrage sparked on social media regarding this, neither Maldives Police Service, National Integrity Commission, nor the Prosecutor General’s Office has made an official comment regarding the matter as of now.
The safari rape case made international headlines after a Kenyan woman was sexually assaulted on board a safari which was docked in the lagoon of Hulhumale’, sometime during late June. Police arrested two 39 year old males from the crime scene, however released both citing that there was no probable cause to keep the pair in custody. Public outrage sparked following the incident which was later followed by news that one of the perpetrators was the husband of an MP, as well as a relative of the President, calling them “royal people.” With this, protestors took to the streets of Male’ calling for justice to be served and against impunity.
The identities of the two arrested have not been disclosed by police, who maintain that it cannot be revealed during the course of the investigation, despite having done so in similar cases previously.
