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Mauritius Hizbullah Leader Abused By Police
by Kazi Mahmood
JAKARTA (IslamOnline) - Muslims in Mauritius showed their disgust and anger when they rallied in thousands last weekend in support of Muhammad Cehl Meeah Fakeermeah, the jailed leader of the Hizbullah party.
They were protesting alleged abuses by the police while Fakeermeah was in detention last week. The physically weakened leader of the Hizbullah spent the last few days in hospital guarded by armed policemen.
Fakeermeah’s father called on Mauritian President Cassam Uteem, a Muslim, and protested against the ill treatment his son suffered at the hands of the police. The president made it certain that the family of the jailed leader could see him and that his lawyers had access to him.
Fakeermeah has three broken ribs and suffered several concussions, indicating the possibility that police assaulted him while attempting to interrogate him on triple murder charges of which he is being accused.
Yousouf Mohamed, lead counsel for the Hizbullah leader, said he would make sure two members of the police force named by Fakeermeah as the abusers would pay for their action. He said it was obvious there was abuse of the leader in jail and that justice must be done.
Mohamed was a leading Muslim politician in the 70s and 80s until his own downfall from politics forced him to concentrate on his career as a lawyer. Mohamed and Fakeermeah have been at odds in the past on the type of political game Muslims should play in Mauritius.
Mohamed alleged that the Crime Investigation Department (CID) has been acting on orders of politicians who are at the helm of the Mauritian government. He urged the police not to allow politicians to meddle in their inquiry over the triple murder of government party activists in 1996.
An underground group called the Squadron of Death committed the murder he counters. A member of the Squadron denied that Fakeermeah was the head of the group.
The arrest of Fakeermeah on a simple allegation of being a member of the group, and an ex-member of the Hizbullah, has raised several questions in the country. The Muslim community has been outraged by the treatment meted out to Fakeermeah and is questioning the good faith of the newly elected government.
Members of the Muslim ulama in Mauritius have joined forces with the Hizbullah and other organizations, such as Al-Muhajiroun, to appeal for calm among Muslims, while at the same time pressing for swift justice against the policemen.
Mauritius is well known for police violence against prisoners. The death of several detainees in the past has raised questions on the security of prisoners in Mauritian jails.
In 1999, the entire island rose in flames and destruction when the Creole community in Mauritius protested violently against the alleged murder of a Rasta singer known as Kaya. The popular singer was jailed for a weekend for smoking pot in public.
He did not survive the weekend in jail, as he was violently killed in what has turned out to be yet another unsolved murder case. His sudden death triggered a week of violent uprising that ended only after the shooting of four protesters by police.
The Al-Muhajiroun movement, which has a branch in Port Louis, has jumped onto the bandwagon of support for Fakeermeeah. It severely condemned the aggression against the Hizbullah leader and has labeled the current Mauritian government as a corrupt and unjust regime.
It says the current regime of Anerood Jugnauth and Paul Berenger, both the Prime Minister and Vice Prime Minister in the Movement Socialist Militant (MSM) and Movement Militant Mauricien (MSM) coalition, is continuing a “crusade” against the Muslims in Mauritius.
The U.K. based Al-Muhajiroun, classified as a terrorist movement by intelligence officers in the United States, said the Mauritian Prime Minister had a track record of being anti-Muslim. In the past, Anerood Jugnauth forced the repelling of the Muslim Personal Law (MPL) after its adoption by the Labor Party government in 1982.
The Al-Muhajiroun also reminded Muslims in Mauritius that Paul Berenger himself criticized the MPL as a retrograde law in an interview with BBC radio, given to the writer of this story and Catherine Watson in 1989.
According to law experts in Mauritius, the Hizbullah leader risks no less than 45 years in jail if he is found guilty of being an accomplice in the murders he is being accused of. They say, however, that the courts will have to rely on the word of an ex-member of the Hizbullah who clashed with Fakeermeah in the past.
Tourab Bissessur, accused of participating in several murders and robbery in 1996, has said that Fakeermeah was at the head of the crimes he committed. He said the Hizbullah leader benefited from these murders and other crimes.
However, two others accused in the case dismissed the possibility that Fakeermeah had anything to do with the murders and robberies committed by the Squadron of Death.
Analysts say the Hizbullah leader will unlikely cooperate with the police after the violent treatment he received from them. They say there is no case against him as of yet and that the police could not possibly prolong his arrest without any charges against him.
Fakeermeah would certainly reject all the accusations against him said Mohamed on Tuesday. He added that allegations made by a single person, Bissessur, were made out of contempt against the Hizbullah leader, and that he will assist Fakeermeah in his deposition to the police.
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