The civil court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the family of slain blogger Yameen Rasheed over the failure of the police to protect him despite numerous death threats reported to the authorities.
On Sunday, Judge Abdul Nasir Shafeeq decided that the court does not have the jurisdiction to hear the negligence suit as investigating complaints of police misconduct was the task of the National Integrity Commission, an oversight body for law enforcement authorities.
But Yameen’s family challenged the court’s reasoning. The NIC was mandated to look into complaints involving individual police officers, the family noted in a statement Monday, contending that the Maldives Police Service as an institution was the subject of the negligence case.
Vowing to continue the fight for justice for Yameen, the family said both the institution and individual officers complicit in the failure to properly investigate the death threats “should be held accountable before the law”.
Yameen had filed separate complaints in 2010, 2014 and most recently in late December 2016. He also criticised the police on social media over the failure to respond to the complaints.
The family sued the police a week after the 29-year-old satirist was found dead in the stairwell of his residence in Malé. The court conducted four hearings but informed lawyers after cancelling a hearing scheduled for July 17 that the judge has asked the police watchdog to investigate the claims of negligence.
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