FORMER PRESIDENT NASHEED SEEKS INDIAN MILITARY INTERVENTION TO END CRISIS
Colombo/Male: Maldives’ Supreme Court has revoked the order to release nine prominent political prisoners, hours after former president Mohamed Nasheed sought India’s military intervention to resolve the political crisis in his country following the declaration of emergency by President Abdulla Yameen and arrest of two top judges.
Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and another judge, Ali Hameed, were arrested after President Yameen declared emergency Monday. In a late Tuesday night development, the remaining three judges of the Supreme Court amended an order to release nine high profile political prisoners. In a statement, the judges said they were revoking the order to release the prisoners “due to the concerns raised by the President”.
The amendment to the February 1 SC ruling also omits the part that says the case against the SC judges was not received by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC).
Earlier Tuesday, President Yameen accused the detained judges of plotting to overthrow him. “I had to declare an emergency because there was no other way to investigate these judges,” Yameen said in a televised address to the nation. “We had to find out how thick the plot was,” he said, adding that the chief justice was trying to illegally impeach him and sack the attorney general.
Former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who has allied himself with the Opposition, was also detained at home. Concerned over the turmoil, India said it was “disturbed” at the declaration of emergency by the Maldivian government and described as a matter of “concern” the arrests of the CJ and political figures.
India Monday asked its nationals not to undertake non-essential trips to the Male until further notice.
Nasheed, whose Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) functions from Colombo, appealed for India’s help. “We would like the Indian government to send an envoy, backed by its military, to free the judges and the political detainees, including former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and to bring them home. We are asking for a physical presence,” Nasheed said in his tweet.
Male, which has seen a number of crisis since the ouster of its first elected president Nasheed in 2012, plunged into chaos Thursday when the SC ordered the release of nine imprisoned opposition politicians, maintaining that their trials were “politically motivated and flawed”. The nine political leaders included Nasheed. The Yameen government refused to implement the ruling, prompting a wave of protests in Maldives capital, Male.
PTI