Male’ Prison of Maldives Correctional Service has started utilising three courtrooms that offering online participation of court hearings at the Prison for inmates and remanded persons.
The courtrooms were inaugurated by Commissioner of Prisons Ahmed Mohamed Fulhu at a ceremony held at Male’ Prison. The ceremony was also joined by Deputy Commissioner of Prisons Uz Ibrahim Mohamed Didi, Assistant Commissioner of Prisons Mohamed Asif, Director of Male’ Prison DSP Uz Mohamed Tholaal, Commissioned Officers and prison officers of Male’ Prison.
While speaking at the ceremony, Commissioner Ahmed Mohamed Fulhu stated that “The three courtrooms we begin to utilise today is a great progress to our efforts. This comes at a time when we have been forced provide online services due to Covid-19 and it is especially relevant to a country such as Maldives, we had even carried out several tasks last year to offer participation of court hearings while at various parts of the country.”
The Commissioner noted that there are a considerable number of people remanded under MCS and even now there are 298 people remanded pending court proceedings. He further stated that more than 80 of the cases were from Magistrate courts and related to other atolls and it was rather difficult and expensive to transport people from one point to another; hence these courtrooms will provide several solutions to this issue.
Director of Male’ Prison DSP Uz Mohamed Tholaal said that previously there were no special place(s) allocated for online courtroom hearings prior to this and they had been using the meeting room, family and lawyer visiting rooms. He stated that currently there were 131 persons remanded pending court proceedings at Male’ Prison and that it was a considerable figure. DSP Uz Tholaal further added that inmates and remanded persons complain a lot about prolonged court proceedings and he believes these courtrooms will provide a solution to speeding up the process.
