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AG says complaints of violence must be reported to Police

December 16, 2015 6:32 pm

Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has stressed that any complaints of any violence or torture must be lodged with Police first before it is referred to any other institution.

He is responding to allegations of torture which have been made by Lautoka lawyer Aman Ravindra-Singh.

“Reality is this, as has been said by the Acting Commissioner for Police, that any complaint of , any violence, any torture must be lodged with the commission of police, with the police force, no such complaint has been lodged, now getting back to my original example, if tomorrow somebody says they have been raped, or their child has been sexually violated, they go to the police, they don’t go to the standing committee, the committee on foreign affairs does not have any expertise in receiving complaints on such matters.”

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Ravindra-Singh was earlier this week called to make a submission before the parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs and defense, but this did not eventuate

“My allegations are a matter of national concern, its a matter of national importance, it has grabbed the international headlines so why not deal with it, why shelve it and the other I’d like to ask the AG is quite simply where exactly in the rule books does it say that a complaint must be lodged to the Police first before the house can or the parliamentary select committee can deal with it.”

The committee was told to suspend their deliberations by the AG who advised them that it was unconstitutional.