Committee probes case of state neglect of special needs person

Parliament’s human rights and gender committee has begun looking into a case involving the state’s neglect of a mother and son with special needs.

Ahmed Hisaan, a children’s rights advocate, submitted the case claiming that the police service, the prosecutor general, gender ministry, and other relevant authorities have neglected to investigate the case of the mother and child.

It states that the police had assaulted the 16-year-old in 2015, and criminally charged and jailed him after failing to force him to give a false statement. He was again criminally charged in 2017, after an investigation conducted by the same officers who had tried to force him to provide the false statement.

The case further states that the gender ministry submitted the case of assault to the police integrity commission in 2015, which is a violation of the anti-torture act requiring the ministry to submit such cases to the human rights commission.

Hisaan said that the victim had attempted to commit suicide while in jail but that he was not treated for his mental illness, and that letters from doctors and clinical psychologist Dr. Aishath Ali Naaz, urging authorities to treat him, were overruled by the PG office.

Police had also taken statements from the victim’s mother, who suffers from schizophrenia, despite her inability to communicate.

Dhangethi MP Mohamed Nazim proposed to summon the relevant authorities to the committee to further investigate this case, stating that the entire police service should not be ruined by the actions of a few officers and that those responsible should be held into account.

The committee approved MP Nazim’s proposal as well as the proposal to obtain written statements from the police service, gender ministry, and the prosecutor general’s office.