Court schedules hearing for MP Mahloof for speaking out on plight of prisoners

The Criminal Court has scheduled judicial proceedings for a case against opposition aligned lawmaker Ahmed Mahloof for speaking out about deaths in prison.

The first hearing for the case has been scheduled for 10:00 AM on Monday. The lawmaker is accused of submitting false reports to a law enforcement body.

In a tweet he sent out in January, Mahloof said that prisoners at the state’s detention facility in Maafushi island were ‘not dying - but being killed’.

In the post, he had said that senior officials of the Maldives Correctional Service must be held accountable.

In February last year, Mahloof also released a statement noting that five inmates had died under vague circumstances during his imprisonment alone.

Mahloof had then been sentenced to ten months and 24 days in prison for obstruction of justice, in July 2016.

The lawmaker had then said that many ill inmates are routinely kept from receiving their prescribed medication for months. He also said the food served to inmates is not something most Maldivians would not ‘willingly consume’.

Mahloof is currently in detention as well, after having been apprehended at an anti-government rally calling for judicial independence to be ensured and for President Abdulla Yameen’s resignation.