Malé, Maldives – Commissioner of Prisons Ahmed Mohamed Fulhu of the Maldives Correctional Service today stated that the Malé jail is overcrowded and called for faster court trials.
Following a visit to the Malé Prison, the Prisons Commissioner stated that at present, the Malé Prison is housing 33 percent more detainees overcapacity causing challenges to providing services to inmates.
Malé Prison is 33 percent overcapacity. Trials must be faster.
Commissioner of Prisons Ahmed Mohamed Fulhu
The Prisons Commissioner stated that health services suffer the most due to the overload of inmates in the prison.
The case of inmates in remand custody being detained for years without completion of trial was raised in October 2021 at the Maldives Parliament. MP Moosa Siraj of Fonadhoo Constituency also noted that the Maldives prison system is overcrowded leading to the inability to provide basic services such as healthcare to inmates.
According to statistics released by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2019, the Malé jail was running overcapacity with 10 inmates housed in 4 inmate cells, increasing number of diseases spread due to overcrowding leading to violation of basic rights of inmates.
In September 2021, Amnesty International on Monday, called on the authorities of Maldives to put an end to the degrading treatment of prisoners. The human rights organization stated that there is a history of allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in Maldives prisons, as well as overcrowding and inadequate medical care and urged authorities to investigate torture cases independently and expeditiously, without the involvement of the agencies allegedly responsible for the negligence or human rights violations.
