Ibrahim Lutfy’s letter to Dr Munavvar

The following is a text of a letter sent by Ibrahim Lutfy to Dr Mohamed Munavvar in 1999. Lutfy gave details to Munavvar (the Maldives Attorney General that time) that the case being built against Lutfy by the Office of Attorney General had no real weight and that he was being framed by the police. He gave details of police torture that detainees undergo and mentions that it is easy for the police to obtain confession statements after beating and torturing detainees. However, in a meeting of MDP in 2005 Dr Munavvar said he had not known during his term as Attorney General that detainees were tortured by police to obtain confessions that were later used for prosecution. The letter was written in Dhivehi and has been translated into English by MaldivesCulture.com. The Dhivehi and English text of the letter has been published by Maldivian Rebels in their underground magazine Maverick issue 6. Ibrahim Lutfy is a Maldivian prisoner of conscience who was later granted political asylum by Switzerland. He was one of the editors of the underground newsletter Sandhaanu, and he was sentenced to life in prison regarding Sandhaanu in 2002. Later he fled while undergoing a treatment in Sri Lanka. His ordeals in 1999 was not related to Sandhaanu and it was only later that Sandhaanu was published. Following Maldivian custom for writing letters, Ibrahim Lutfy ended his letter of 1999 by writing ‘Khadimukum’ or ‘At your service’ which is the Maldivian equivalent of ‘Sincerely’. This letter was among hundreds of letters sent by victimised people to Dr Mohamed Munavvar during the ten years he served as Attorney General, and they ended the letters with ‘Khadimukum’. However, Dr Munavvar was not at their service; he was serving somebody else. As he had stated in the radio debate some people had benefited from his ’services’ in the Cabinet of Gayoom. However, the beneficiaries were not clearly ordinary Maldivian citizens.

From:
Ibrahim Moosa Lutfy
P.O. Box 20188
Phone: 772002

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 diffi cult 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 the 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.

I made a claim of being physically assaulted inside the Civil Court by the honourable Member of Peoples’ Majlis, Ismail Zahir (Agi house, Henveiru ward) of Kudahuvadu island, Dhaalu Atoll, and about the brutal investigation conducted by the police. Despite this information being known to you, a claim was raised against me on the same matter in court. This shocked me even more.

You have supported a bankrupt investigative system. However, I argued in defence of the claim raised against me, though your skilful prosecuting lawyer kept saying in eloquent language that I was the one who committed the assault, and that what I said had ‘no legal weight’.

When asked whether Isamil Zahir, who claimed to have been assaulted, could be summoned to the court, it was affirmed. However, in the same way the investigation was carried out, the trial was also concluded without him being summoned to the court. I was fined two hundred rufiyaa after being found guilty of the offence of battery.

In the belief that people like Dr Munavvar, who hold degrees, would know what best to do about this sort of investigation and the trial, I remained silent. My great grandfather, Faleelathul Sheikh Ibrahim Lutfy (Addu Thuththu Didi) during his time as the Attorney General of Maldives resigned from his position on a day he had to raise a particular claim in court. He refused to raise that claim. Was it because of his lack of skills and the ‘legal weight’ of his educational certificates?

Honourable Attorney General, since I appear to have woken up in a completely new world and feeling immature, I respectfully remind you about this trial because you have raised a new type of legal claim against me, and the tune of this litigation is changing. This claim of having lied about my identity; the obvious question is, what is the grave crime that I have committed here?

I am surprised and stunned. It is not possible for me to be guilty. And I do not know how to defend this sort of thing, and I don’t know when the trial will come to an end. I have been put in prison twice. I have been placed under house arrest in a rented room, twice. Since the 3rd of July I have been under detention. A third of the year is now gone. It is all because of this same problem. Neither a court of law, nor any other authority, has sentenced me, and yet I am being kept under arrest. Isn’t this a remarkable matter?

Please accept my respects,

22 October 1999

Yours sincerely,
(Lutfy’s signature)

Ibrahim Moosa Lutfy
Fenmuli house, Hithadhoo island , Seenu Atoll

To:
Office of the Attorney General
Malé, Maldives

Copy to:
To the noble presence of the President al-usthaz Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom
Head of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs
Speaker of the People’s Majlis
Members of the People’s Majlis
Members of the Cabinet
Chief Justice of Maldives
Chief Magistrate of the Criminal Court
Candidates of the General Elections 1999

Reference

Maverick, the magazine of Maldivian Rebels, Issue 6 published 19-20 September 2005
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.