The state’s judicial scrutineer, the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) has revealed that it had launched a total of 109 investigations last year, including unconcluded cases from 2015.
The JSC said that 28 complaints directly pertain to complaints over the integrity of judges, while some other cases concern allegations of disciplinary misconduct and political favouritism against them.
Amnesty International’s human rights report for 2016 noted a lack of transparent practices in the Maldivian judiciary and stressed that the government had ‘failed’ to regulate institutions like the JSC to deter unfair trials, citing those against politicians, journalists, members of civil society, and activists.
“Lack of independence of the judiciary remained a concern, the government took steps to reintroduce executions after more than 60 years” the 2016 section on Maldives read.
Further, Transparency Maldives had released a report titled ‘Issues In the Maldivian Judiciary’ which noted deteriorating public trust in the judicial institution citing the Global Corruption Barometer to say that local perception of the judiciary is that it is highly corrupt.
