AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

failed to strengthen the Judicial Services
Commission to ensure impartiality.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
A new defamation law criminalizing
“defamatory” speech, remarks and other
actions was passed by Parliament and
ratified by the President in August. The law is
vaguely worded and broad in its application,
giving the authorities wide discretion to target
and silence peaceful critics. 1
Free and independent media faced
harassment in the form of lawsuits and bans.
News outlets Haveeru, DhiTV, AdduLIVE and
Channel News Maldives were on occasion
blocked or forced to shut down. Four
journalists from the pro-opposition Raajje TV
were charged with obstructing law
enforcement officers after covering a protest;
their sentences were expected in early 2017.
Social media activist “Lucas” Jaleel was
arrested for “inciting hatred” in July after he
alleged excessive use of force by police in a
series of tweets.
In April, police confirmed that reporter
Ahmed Rilwan had been abducted outside
his home in 2014, having previously denied
there was evidence of an abduction. In May,
the government denied involvement in his
disappearance to the UN Working Group on
Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.
In September, police raided the premises
of the newspaper Maldives Independent, on
the basis that it was suspected of
involvement in a coup plot. The raid took
place hours after the premiere of an Al
Jazeera documentary alleging large-scale
corruption by the President and senior
ministers, in which the newspaper’s editor
was interviewed.
FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY
Arbitrary restrictions on peaceful protesters
and human rights defenders continued. In
February, police banned an anti-corruption
rally in the capital, Malé. In April, 16
journalists were arrested after staging a
peaceful protest against the defamation law
outside the President’s office, 2 and in August
journalists were stopped from protesting
against the same law. In July, the Maldives
United Opposition was refused permission by
the government to hold a rally. A law was
enacted in August requiring written
permission from the police to hold a protest
in Malé.
CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING
PUNISHMENT
Courts continued to sentence people, the
vast majority of them women, to flogging.
This was most commonly imposed for
“fornication”. Despite flogging constituting
torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading
punishment, the government continued to
insist that it would not remove the
punishment from Maldivian law.
DEATH PENALTY
Senior officials repeatedly pledged to resume
executions and end a moratorium on the use
of the death penalty that has been in effect
for more than 60 years. The government
declared that it would carry out executions
within 30 days of the Supreme Court
upholding death sentences and changed the
method of execution from lethal injection to
death by hanging. Death sentences against
three people were upheld by the Supreme
Court in June and July, despite welldocumented
fair trial concerns in at least one
case. 3 No executions took place, as
negotiations with the victims’ families over
possible pardons under Islamic law were
ongoing. Of the 17 prisoners on death row, at
least five were sentenced to death for crimes
committed when they were below 18 years of
age.
1. Maldives: Proposed defamation law is an attack on freedom of
expression (ASA 29/4573/2016)
2. Maldives: Arrest of 16 journalists threatens freedom of the press (ASA
33/3773/2016)
3. Maldives: Halt plans to carry out first execution in more than six
decades (ASA 29/4364/2016)
244 Amnesty International Report 2016/17