No witnesses confirm Nasheed to have been attacked with pepper spray: Police

Although riot police used pepper spray to disperse crowds during the violent protests on the 14th of this month, the alleged attack of the spray targeted on the eyes of former President Mohamed Nasheed was not seen by his bodyguards, says the Maldives Police Service.

The Police conducted an investigation into a claim saying that a riot police officer deliberately sprayed Nasheed on the face with pepper spray. However, a Report prepared by the Police Professional Standard Directorate said that the officer in question sprayed at the crowd and not specifically on any person.

Bodyguards of Nasheed, provided by the Special Protection Unit of the Maldives National Defence Forces confirmed that they were with Nasheed on the 14th of July, and while they said that the Police used pepper spray to disperse crowd, they said they could not identify any particular officers to have used them.

The same bodyguards also said that they did not witness any pepper-spray attacks targeted specifically at President Nasheed.

According to the Report police officers on the scene were also questioned during the investigation of the matter. Those officers admitted to the use of pepper spray, but said that the measure was taken against a part of the crowd which defied repeated orders to clear the east side of Chaandanee Magu. Those officers too denied claims that they sprayed anyone specifically.

The Report published by the Police also said that Nasheed joined the protests around 22:20 on the night of 14th of July, and that after he did so, the protesters started turning violent, carrying police barricades into their ranks as well.

According to the Report, the police directed protesters to get out of police cordons when the crowd started to become violent, and all but a group to the east of Chaandanee Magu complied. The Report said that those at the east side tried to break police lines and perpetrate violence, and that it was then that pepper spray was used, effectively to control the situation.