PGO decides against pursuing charges against lockdown violators
21 ޖުލައި 2020 | އަންގާރަ 10:14Police sought charges against some lockdown violators during May
Officers of the Maldives Police Service, during the lockdown period
Prosecutor General, Hussain Shameem has decided against pressing charges on the lockdown violations recorded during the lockdown imposed across the Greater Malé Region, provoked by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a press release issued on Tuesday, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) revealed their decision to not press charges against the cases against some of the Covid-19 lockdown violations, which were forwarded for prosecution in late May.
As such, the cases investigated by the Maldives Police Service (MPS) have been withdrawn and are being returned to the institution, as the PGO has decided to not carry on with the cases.
PGO revealed that the main reason to withdraw the cases is because the authority believes if will only be fair to impose actions on all lockdown violations, equally and not just a select group.
Further, PGO stressed that some individuals violated the lockdown because they had no other way and that pinning a criminal record on these individuals will hinder public peace.
Hence, all charges against lockdown violations have been withdrawn from courts and work is underway to return them to the police institution, currently.
The PGO has however, urged to enforce the fines imposed on lockdown violators despite the decision to not press charges.
In light of this, all relevant institutions have been urged to do the needful to collect the fine payments.
Earlier, the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Abdulla Fairoosh revealed during a press conference that 328 people were taken into custody for lockdown breaches and some were released while most were sent for prosecution.
While a person found to have violated the director general of public health's lockdown order faced a MVR 1,000 fine the first time, repeat offenders were arrested under Article 533 (a) of the Penal Code.
On April 15, Malé City was placed on lockdown following the detection of a Covid-19 community transmission and over a month later, authorities began easing the lockdown on May 29.
