MALE: Beset by accusations of endemic human rights abuses in his Indian Ocean resort nation, Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom says his critics should check their facts before accusing his regime of systematic torture.

Gayoom cracked down on hundreds of protesters in August with truncheons and teargas, prompting European Parliament calls for sanctions and widespread demands for the release of dozens of his political opponents still in jail without charge two months on.

But Asia's longest-serving ruler - credited with transforming the Maldives into a multi-million dollar tourist Mecca but branded by opponents a cruel, corrupt, autocratic despot - says his conscience is clean.

"There has been no systematic torture or organised torture of prisoners," Gayoom, 66, said in an interview at his grand presidential office in Male, whitewashed capital of the island cluster, late on Tuesday. "There could have been isolated incidents in this country, as it happens everywhere else."

"I'm afraid to say Amnesty International has taken many reports that they have received on face value without corroborating or verifying the facts," added the soft-spoken former university lecturer, in power now for 26 years.

Recently released detainees tell a different story. They describe being blindfolded, forced to sit for hours in the burning sun on remote islands and in some cases sexually molested.

Political parties are effectively banned in the Maldives, so Gayoom's opponents either meet behind closed doors or under the shadow of night, too afraid to openly criticise him. Their fear is palpable. Others have fled into self-imposed exile in neighbouring Sri Lanka.

OPPONENTS: "The present people who are detained are not (held) because they are opponents of the government, not for that reason at all," Gayoom said. "They have been involved in some illegal activities on the road, some have been involved in mob violence, and some acts of terrorism and threats of terrorism."