A flawed redemption: the half-hearted “apology” from Munavvar

In mid-2005 in a meeting of Maldivian Democratic Party held at Iskandhar School in Male’ Dr Mohamed Munavvar, former Attorney General and ex-member of parliament, apologized to people who were prosecuted during his term as AG based on confession statements obtained by police using coercion and torture. This “apology” has been misreported in the media giving the impression that Munavvar had apologized for injustices inflicted on people during his ten years as Attorney General under the brutal rule of Gayoom.

In fact, even websites such as Minivan News has fallen prey to this lie, which has been used by Munavvar’s supporters to whitewash his ten years of dirty laundry.

In fact, what most websites and people who talk about Munavvar’s apology fail to point out is that Munavvar lied to the Maldivian people while he publicly apologized. Let us examine the circumstances and the manner in which Munavvar apologized. Maldivian Rebels, in the sixth issue of underground magazine Maverick, describes the incident.

Former Attorney General Dr Mohamed Munawwar had the choice to resign rather than prosecute innocent people such as Lutfy in 1998 and 1999. However, Dr Munawwar was not as noble as former Attorney General late Faleelathul Sheikh Ibrahim Lutfy (Addu Thuththu Didi). Dr Munawwar chose to remain in the cabinet post that he got in 1993. He protected his friends from cases against them but he was ruthless in prosecuting dissidents and political prisoners. Dr Munawwar was the Attorney General when Lutfy, Ahmed Didi, Mohamed Zaki and Fathimath Nisreen were prosecuted for creating Sandhaanu. Nisreen was an innocent girl who was not even involved in Sandhaanu according to Lutfy, Didi and Zaki. The three men were sentenced to life in prison and Nisreen was sentenced to ten years of jail based on charges that they conspired in acts hostile to the state. The three men received a separate sentence of one year’s banishment and Nisreen received a sentence of one year of house arrest based on charges of defamation. The government prosecution alleged that Sandhaanu called for a holy jihad to overthrow the ‘legally elected’ government of the Maldives. After defending the regime so loyally, Dr Munawwar was nevertheless sacked from his post by Gayoom in November 2003. He later joined Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). Dr Munavvar realized that the only playing card left for him was joining the reform movement and overnight he turned a zealous reformist. As a result, he was also arrested following the pro-democracy protest of Black Friday, August 13, 2004. Recently, in a public meeting of MDP, Dr Munawwar apologized to the public for any instances in which a person was prosecuted based on confession statements obtained through force, while he was the Attorney General. He said that during his ten years as Attorney General he was not aware that people were forced by police while in detention to obtain confession statements. He said he became aware of this fact only while he was in detention in Dhoonidhoo following the August 13 demonstration. After reading this letter from Lutfy, sent in 1999, to Dr Munawwar, and after reading Lutfy’s report detailing torture used in obtaining confessions, (a report which was also sent to Dr Munawwar in 1999) one could see that Dr Munawwar is a skillful liar.

A person who repents for a sin acknowledges guilt. However, Dr Munavvar publicly lied to Maldivian people when he said that he did not know, during his ten year term as Attorney General, that people were tortured in detention to obtain confessions which were later used by the Office of the Attorney General to prosecute them.

In 1999 Ibrahim Lutfy sent a letter written in Dhivehi to Dr Munavvar dated 22 October 1999. In the letter Lutfy gave details of the types of torture inflicted on detainees and prisoners in Maldives. An English translation by MaldivesCulture.com was published in Maverick issue 6, page 20. In the letter, Lutfy hints that Dr Munavvar had previous knowledge of torture in detention as the Attorney General had talked about it in a private meeting with Lutfy.

To the Attorney General Dr Mohamed Munavvar

Greetings and I would like to say,

When a person is arrested and accused of committing a crime without satisfactory evidence, it is not difficult to make the accused person admit to committing the offence. First, before questioning begins, the person is beaten up without any consideration of long-term injury. Limbs are sometimes broken. If this doesn’t work, then the person’s backbone will be broken. After that, the investigator writes a statement saying whatever he likes, and gives it to the accused for signing. There is no doubt that after being subject to torture like this, the person would be willing to admit to things that he had never done.

No talent is required to conduct this sort of investigation. It is enough that he investigator has received colourful medals for bravery. In general, the public does not see police actions of the type I have described. However, we all know this kind of thing happens. We may have experienced them in films or in the news bulletins.

Should police inquiries have specific procedures and rules? Does a person being investigated have rights? Should defence evidence be destroyed? Should there be fairness when providing the protection of legal rights, when the law is applied to an accused person? If the person is subject to harm, should that person’s right to send a plea, to the authorities or to the president, be taken away? If that person is likely to be successful in defending himself, should he be chained?

Police brutality is not new to you sir. I remember very well what you said to me, in reference to police brutality, during the few meetings we had. In this situation, I am surprised and stunned by the fact that you prosecute me based on reports from investigations of this type.

If the letter that Lutfy sent in 1999 was not enough to inform the Attorney General that torture was prevailing in Maldives, the famous report that Lutfy compiled and sent to members of parliament and members of Cabinet had enough details about torture in Dhoonidhoo and Maafushi prisons. A copy of this report was sent to Dr Munavvar. An English translation of the Lutfy report from MaldivesCulture.com and the original Dhivehi text were reproduced in the issue 6 of Maverick. In the report by Lutfy there is one section for ‘The Horrors of Maafushi Prison.’

Tortures inflicted in Maafushi prison include handcuffing prisoners behind their back around a coconut palm or a tree, and keeping the prisoner in that position for many days. When there is a dispute between prisoners, they are handcuffed and beaten up severely without any consideration where they are hit on their body. They are sometimes thrown into the sea, or made to urinate on each other. There is a lot of this sort of torture.

Sometimes when the police beat up prisoners, they hit them on their spine. I saw the police hit prisoners on their eyes and ears very hard. If any of these things were reported to the chief of the prison 30 – 50 police officers would come and wake up the inmates in that block. They will march all the prisoners out of the block and pull out the bedsheets, pillows, clothes, soap and even the water they keep for drinking. The police would throw these things all over the place, making a mess. After that, they will order the inmates to find their own things and to lay on the benches asleep within 15 minutes. Anyone who failed to do so would be severely punished.

If Dr Munavvar was sincere he would have acknowledged that he had committed injustice to people by serving under the dictatorial regime of Gayoom. Instead, he blatantly lied when he said that he had no knowledge that detainees were tortured to obtain confessions. In his eyes, there was no sin to repent. Instead, he weaved another web of deceit and said he apologized to any person who was prosecuted based on confessions obtained through torture, while pretending that he was unaware of torturing detainees in Maldives.

Documented evidence proves that Dr Munavvar was aware during his term as Attorney General that Maldivians were tortured to obtain confessions to be used for prosecution. Dr Munavvar had thus participated in acts of torture and this liar should never be allowed to be elected to a public office again.

“For years Luthufy was dragged from prison in two islands and Male’ to house arrest. In 1999 he released a report of his ordeal and sent a copy to each candidate in the parliamentary election as well as the President and justice minister. Luthufy’s report details the inhuman nature of the Maldives police and how unfair and twisted the justice system is. It showed how even pleas to the President and the subsequent instructions of the president were ‘ignored’ by the police and the judiciary.

It illustrated how abusive low ranking police were and how a senior NSS official and an MP collaborated with Luthufy’s father-in-law in this plot. While he was in detention, cops called his wife and harassed her. His children were psychologically affected by his long spells of absence.

Luthufy’s report is too good to miss for anybody who wants to know about the torture and arbitrary powers of Maldivian police. Shortly after his report of experiences in the hands of NSS was distributed, he was released. But freedom was not meant to last for Ibrahim Luthufy.

If Sandhaanu was born out of hatred and anger, it is the regime that fueled the fire, fed the anger and impregnated the fury.”
- Maverick 1.35, June 2002

Reference

Maverick, the magazine of Maldivian Rebels, Issue 6 published 19-20 September 2005
Maverick, the magazine of Maldivian Rebels, Issue 1 published July 2002
http://www.do2004.com/DO/Maverick_Resist.htm
http://www.maldivesculture.com/news/maldives_maverick_index.htm

If you agree with us that Dr Munavvar worked as a servant of Gayoom in prosecuting people based on confessions obtained through torture and later lied about it in an MDP meeting, send this article by email to your friends, write about it in your facebook groups and write about it in your blogs. We can’t let the lies of Dr Munavvar go unchallenged.