Stephen Gethins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Gethins on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the independence of the legal system in the Maldives.

Mr Hugo Swire

We are concerned about the erosion of judicial independence in the Maldives. A 2013 UN report by the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers raised serious questions about the impartiality of judges, the fact that many interventions by courts were arbitrary and that due process was not being followed. We do not believe that the situation has improved since. I raised the issue of judicial independence when I met key members of the Maldives government, including President Yameen, during my visit to the Maldives on 17 and 18 January.