Commission accuses intel division of negligence in Rilwan's case

Presidential Commission on Deaths and Enforced Disappearances has stated that the responsibility for the death of journalist Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla who went missing in 2014 is on the senior officials of Maldives Police Service's Intelligence division.

The Commission stated that the intel division had received information that plans were being formulated to drown two people, and the plan was then in the preparation stages. The Commission alleged that intel division officers had failed to act on this tip and are therefore responsible for the murder of Ahmed RIlwan Abdulla.

The report published by the Presidential Commission had highlighted the fact that intel division officers had been monitoring Rilwan and even intercepted his phone calls from April 24 to July 21 of 2014. The Commission noted that the warrant to tap Rilwan's phone was obtained by citing confidential information that the police had received alleging Rilwan and a few others were planning acts that would endanger the national security of the country. The Commission stated that there was no concrete evidence regarding the information police had provided to obtain this warrant.

The officers involved in tapping Rilwan's phone were named as Police intel division officers Mohamed Jinah (Service No. 4493) and Ibrahim Riffath (Service No. 3246). The Commission also received a statement from the immediate supervisor of the two officers involved in the case Ahmed Hameed that Jinah had informed him that concerns were rising regarding a secular-minded person who was missing. This was before Rilwan's family had reported him missing.

Hameed also stated to the Commission that Jinah and Riffath informed him after a few days that information that alleged Rilwan had died fighting in Syria had been published on the Bilad Al-Sham media.

Request to have Rilwan followed was made by Mohamed Fayaz Ismail who had been working in the institution since 2004. This was linked to a case of the kidnap of a social media activist who was the admin of a page named "Colourless" on Facebook. The work to monitor social media activists had begun from here on. The request to have Rilwan monitored was made to see if there was any danger to him and to monitor the people who were making the threats against such individuals.

Police had been monitoring Rilwan in April of 2014 after a threat against him was apparent. It was during these days that the intel division had received a tip-off about the plans to kidnap and murder two people by employing gang members. The tip-off was received through an A-grade source, confirming its validity.

The report stated that police had received information that individuals named "Gut Mua" and Ahadhu were planning to hire gang members to carry out these murders and that they had even arranged a boat for the act.

The two targets were admins of Facebook pages and while one of them was abroad, the other was in the country at the time. This was officially logged into the intel division records of police. The Commission stated that it had received the report from the police.

"The failure to act after information about plans to drown two people were received by the police leads the Commission to believe that the heads of the intelligence unit of police are responsible for this," stated the Commission.

The summary report also revealed that the police officers mentioned previously, Jinah and Riffath had met with the then-Controller of Immigration and current High Court Judge Hassan Ali about creating Rilwan's passport. Home Miniter Umar Naseer had stated to the media that there was a chance of finding Rilwan alive at the time of this. 

Hassan Ali had stated that the two officers had wanted to show that Rilwan had died after traveling abroad to a country such as India. He also stated that the two officers spoke about how it can be arranged to bring news regarding Rilwan's death on foreign news channels such as NDTV. The officers were acting on orders of the "Boss" who was not named according to Hassan.

The report stated that Ali had informed the Commission that "The two officers had stated that an official request could not be made after I told them that it was not possible to create Rilwan's passport with such a document. I told them that they could create a document similar to Rilwan's passport, to which they agreed was a good way and departed," 

Phone recordings of former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb had shown that he had tried to obtain a copy of Rilwan's passport on several occasions and met with Jinah and Riffath who were paid for intel information. 

When the police arrested those involved in Rilwan's kidnapping, Adeeb had sent their names to the-then Criminal Court judge Abdulla Didi who had them released. The suspects then fled the country to Syria. 

The team that investigated the case had stated that the officers were the procedure that existed then when the case of the suspects was not appealed to the High Court. It was also the procedure that no request made to hold the passport of Mohamed Suwaid involved in the act.

"This answer by the investigative team does not make sense and is not believable to the Commission. The Commission believes that the police were negligent in investigating this case," read the Commission's report.