Four years after journalist Rilwan's disappearance, family remains resolute

Journalist Ahmed Rilwan’s friends and family have held a demonstration on Wednesday to mark four years since his disappearance.

The demonstrators walked from one side to the other of Majeedhee Magu, the main road of the capital city, holding placards and calling for a proper investigation.

Unlike in previous times, police officers did not obstruct this demonstration and allowed it to continue.

At the demonstration, Ahmed Tholal, Rilwan’s friend and the senior policy executive coordinator of Transparency Maldives, said that it was not enough that President Abdulla Yameen makes empty promises to find Rilwan whenever he is questioned on it, noting that the President takes to podiums to nonchalantly talk about Rilwan’s disappearance and contradicting himself each time.

Tholal also said that police officers and state officials who were negligent in investigating the case should be put to justice.

Also at the demonstration, attorney Hisaan Hussain said that authorities were notified of the police service’s negligence in the investigation and that accordingly a complaint was filed to the now defunct Police Integrity Commission in 2014.

Hisaan said that the Criminal Court’s verdict on the case showed that the police investigation was severely lacking, which proved that there were people behind the scenes influencing the probe, and that President Yameen’s statements show that the government is hiding evidence regarding the case.

Shahinda Ali, the executive director of Maldives Democracy Network, called on authorities to re-open the investigation to fix the issues pointed out by the Criminal Court.

While President Yameen has recently said that Rilwan was ‘undoubtedly dead’ and later apologized for it, Rilwan’s mother said that she will never forgive President Yameen for what he said, adding that she remains hopeful of seeing Rilwan again.