New court building will solve pre-trial remand issue, says minister

Minister for Homeland Security Ali Ihsan has said that the issue of prolonged pre-trial detention can only be resolved by providing sufficient space for criminal court trials and he is hopeful that the new building in Hulhumale will be handed over to the court within two months of completion.

Five ministers were questioned by the public on Monday evening in the 'Ahaa' forum. This forum serves as a platform for the public to engage in discourse and ask questions pertaining to public policy to the Ministers. One of the questions asked on Monday was when the long standing issue of pre-trial detention would be resolved.

'Obscure detention’ refers to the issue of years of prolonged detention during the police investigation and trials, after being arrested and charged with a crime.

Replying to the question, Ihsan said no one should be in prolonged custody due to extended police investigations anymore.

"We have expedited the police investigations as never before, to send it to the Prosecutor General [within the deadline]," Ihsan said.

However, he said there were people who had been remanded for many years waiting for trial and that could only be resolved if the space problem faced by the Criminal Court is resolved.

Ihsan said there is only one courtroom for the 12 judges of the Criminal Court. Therefore, the government is working to solve the space problem, he said.

"Now a place has been found. The building in Hulhumale will be handed over to the Criminal Court within a few months," Ihsan said.

"From then, the cases of the people in ‘obscure detention’ will be expedited. Obscure detention problems will be completely solved”.

He said he did not want to keep a single person behind prison bars unless a verdict is given from the courts.