Deputy Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu was asked today to explain why recent photographs of the seven men who escaped from the Naboro Maximum Prison showed signs of physical assault.
He was asked by Assistant Minister for iTaukei Affairs, Selai Adimaitoga as the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence took submissions on the Fiji Police Force Report from August 2016 to July 2017.
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence
In his explanation, Tudravu did not clarify whether there was a police investigation regarding the matter but stressed that Police do not condone the assault of people in their custody.
He said that the process to recapture the escapees was a joint operation between the Fiji Police Force and Fiji Corrections Service.
In their court appearance last week, one of the escapees was seen on crutches while another had a bandaged arm.
Two of the prisoners who escaped from the Naboro Maximum Security Complex, Solomoni Qurai and Peniasi Qalibau were admitted at the CWM Hospital and Police had earlier confirmed that they were admitted due to injuries sustained while escaping from prison.
During the submission, NFP parliamentarian Pio Tikoduadua said he recognised that the Commissioner of Police is doing a lot of work to curb cases of alleged Police brutality but asked what was being done to properly equip and train Police officers to deal with crimes being committed nowadays.
Tudravu then said that he has seen a massive change in the trend of crimes being committed and adapting to this change is a continuos challenge.
