Maldives’ detained Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed is currently kept in solitary confinement, where he has been since his transfer to the prison on Maafushi island on 22nd March.
Chief Justice Saeed’s lawyers released a statement on Wednesday highlighting that his incarceration in solitary confinement is in violation of local laws on torture and cruel punishment.
The statement cites the second clause of Article 14, of the Anti-Torture Act, to say that incarceration in such circumstances is psychological torture.
The statement goes on to say that their client believes his initial incarceration was unlawful and that his remand later is void.
His lawyers conveyed this, having said that the chief justice was first detained under authority of the government’s contentious state of emergency, which froze several constitutional rights pertaining to the arrested.
Despite this, he was summoned in court for a remand hearing – a process previously foregone – in a manner suggesting that the police had only adhered to said process in order to further keep in remand.
