A/HRC/46/26/Add.1 and regular independent monitoring is one of the most effective tools to reduce the risk of torture and ill-treatment. III. Fundamental safeguards 24. Formally, domestic legislation includes several important safeguards to prevent or reduce the risk of torture and other ill-treatment, including the right to notify relatives of an arrest, and the rights of access to a lawyer and to a medical doctor. 25. The Special Rapporteur notes that arbitrary arrest and detention are legally prohibited, and any person has the right to challenge the lawfulness of his or her arrest or detention in court. The Constitution states that no person shall be arrested or detained for an offence unless the arresting officer witnesses the offence, has reasonable and probable grounds or evidence to believe that a person has committed an offence or is about to commit an offence, or under the authority of a court-issued warrant. The Criminal Procedure Act (2016) also allows arrest if a person is about to commit an offence or may attempt to destroy evidence relating to a major crime. Furthermore, it provides for investigative detention. The Criminal Procedure Act allows the police to detain individuals for questioning for four hours, without the detention being considered a formal arrest. The Special Rapporteur notes with concern that he received several reports of instances in which that provision had been misused by the authorities. 26. Pursuant to article 48 of the Constitution, upon arrest, individuals must be read their Miranda rights, that is, verbally informed immediately of the reason for the arrest, and have that confirmed to them in writing within 12 hours and receive a bail hearing and ruling within 24 hours. The police should inform the arrestee’s family within 24 hours of the arrest. However, the ground for the arrest is communicated only for juveniles, in which case a parent or guardian must be informed within four hours. A random sample of police records examined during the visit showed that, at least formally, arrestees are informed about the reasons for their arrest and about their right to contact a lawyer before the first questioning, as well as, in cases of serious crimes, their right to be provided with a State-appointed legal counsel free of charge. 27. Amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act adopted in October 2019 allow police officers with probable and reasonable grounds to arrest terrorism suspects without an arrest warrant in order to avert the imminent commission of an offence. Civil society sources reported the need for a proper definition of the term “probable and reasonable grounds” in order to avoid misuse of that provision. The Special Rapporteur agrees with that recommendation. The police may restrict private meetings with lawyers for suspects of terrorism offences for a period of seven days where there is reasonable ground to believe that such meetings might result in evidence tampering, committing a terrorist offence, physical harm to another or hindering the recovery of property obtained by committing a terrorism offence. 28. According to information received from the authorities, all interrogations after arrest are systematically video recorded. By law, the police are allowed to question a detainee in the absence of counsel if the detainee’s lawyer does not appear within 12 hours without providing an adequate reason for the delay. 29. According to the sixth anti-torture report of the Human Rights Commission and the Prison Audit Commission report, which were examined by the Special Rapporteur, detention facilities overseen by the Maldives Correctional Service and the Maldives Police Service did not have enough closed-circuit television cameras or were not able to maintain closed-circuit television coverage for a sufficient length of time, thus hindering the investigation of allegations of ill-treatment or torture. In both reports, it was also noted that the Maldives Police Service did not maintain records of detainees they held for fewer than 24 hours, leading to difficulties in verifying complaints or the identities of police officers responsible for any misconduct. 30. The Prosecutor General determines the charges and the arresting officer must present sufficient evidence to a court within 24 hours to justify and obtain authorization for continued detention, otherwise the prisoner is eligible for release. To extend detention, judges must 5