Minister Umar: Shahum and Fariyash sawed 22 places in jail to escape

Home Minister Umar Naseer said that the two dangerous criminals, Ibrahim Shahum and Fariyash Ahmed, who were serving lifetime sentences in Kaafu Maafushi prison, sawed 22 places in the prison to escape.

In a special interview given to Sun Online today, Home Minister said that the two criminals had not escaped easily and they escaped from a “very narrow path”. In that regard Minister said that they escaped from prison by getting into another cell after making a dummy and keeping that in their cell so that no one would notice they were missing.

“They (Shahum and Fariyash) escaped by entering someone else’s cell from a small exit. They kept a dummy in their cell. They did not escape easily. They sawed 22 places. They got out by sawing 22 places. So that’s not something ordinary,” said Umar.

Home Minister said that it was not possible to completely stop escape of criminals from prisons and criminals do escape from even high-security prisons. However, Minister said that it was possible to minimize escape of criminals.

“We cannot stop escape of criminals. Criminals escape from prisons always. It is not happening only in Maldives. It is like this in other countries as well. It is the policy of government to control and to find escaped criminals. So we cannot bring escaping criminals to zero. Criminals do escape from even high-security prisons. That is because prisoners are also humans. They will create some way to escape. Prison Officers are also humans. They will try to prevent prisoners escaping,” said Minister Umar.

Minister Umar said that it has been decided to do more work at prisons to avoid escape of prisoners since Shahum and Fariyash escaped.

Police Intelligence was informed of Shahum and Fariyash having escaped from prison on Friday evening. The two prisoners have now been found in Male’ under an operation conducted by police with Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) officers. Fariyash was wearing a wig to alter his appearance when he was found. Shahum was arrested in a guesthouse.