Male’, Maldives – Home Ministry has refused to reveal information as to why former Vice President of Maldives, Ahmed Adeeb, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail on October, 2020 for being involved in one of largest corruption case recorded in Maldives’ history has been in house arrest after the first day he was sentenced to jail.
The Home Minister of Maldives, Imran Abdulla mentioned earlier on October that Adeeb’s health condition deteriorated and he was transferred to home arrest as the machine Adeeb needs to help him sleep cannot be used in jail.
Since then several questions have been sent to the Home Ministry asking information about the house arrest of Adeeb, however, the Ministry did not respond to any of the questions.
Along with the Home Ministry, Maldives Correctional Service was also requested to reveal what machine Adeeb is using, why the machine cannot be used in jail, why the doctor prescribed Adeeb to use such a machine and for how long Adeeb will be kept in house arrest.
To this, Home Ministry sent a short response which did not reveal the answers to any of the aforementioned questions. The Ministry only stated that “the Inspectorate of Correctional Service Support Section informed that as personal information are involved in the matter, it cannot be revealed to the general public.”
However, while the law states that the information of a person cannot be revealed to the public if the person is unwilling to, the law also states that even if the individual is unwilling to reveal personal information, if it is necessary to maintain the peace of the society, than the information can be revealed with the consent of the review committee of Maldives even if the individual is unwilling to share the information.
As the citizens are concerned about why a person who was found guilty for one of the biggest corruption case in Maldives accounting for up to MVR 3.3 Billion has been transferred to house arrest rather than serving his sentence properly in jail. Therefore, instead of denying to reveal any information regarding the house arrest of Adeeb, the Ministry must reveal at least few amount of information regarding Adeeb to provide peace to the concerned citizens.
While Adeeb was transferred from his apartment in Male’ to an apartment in Amin Avenue in Hulhumale’ recently, he has special Correctional Service officers kept as security guards in his apartment.
Local media outlet, “Mihaaru” informed that a letter has been sent to the Review Committee of the Home Ministry asking to reveal the information regarding Adeeb and why it hasn’t been revealed to the public yet. The complaints sent to the Review Committee usually requires 30 days to consider the complain and to respond to it, however, at times it takes 45 days as well.
