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This handout image released on February 2, 2018 by Mihaaru shows supporters of the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision to order the release of jailed political leaders near the capital Male - AFP
Male (Reuters): The Supreme Court in the Maldives is trying to impeach President Abdulla Yameen for not obeying its order to release jailed opposition leaders, the attorney general said on Sunday, warning of further instability in the Indian Ocean nation.
The Maldives, best known for its luxury resorts, has been in a political crisis since the top court threw out terrorism convictions last week against former president Mohamed Nasheed and others who have been trying to oust the president for years.
Yameen has faced calls at home, and from the United States and India, among other nations, to heed the court decision on Nasheed, the island’s first democratically elected president, and the others, but so far has dug in his heels.
Home to about 400,000 people, the Maldives has also been drawn into a regionwide tussle for influence between India - with which it has longstanding political and security ties - and China, which opened an embassy in 2011 and has offered technical and financial assistance to build infrastructure.
Attorney General Mohamed Anil said the government had received information the Supreme Court was preparing to fire Yameen, but such a move would be illegal and resisted by government law enforcement authorities.
“We have received information that things might happen that will lead to a national security crisis,” Anil told reporters in the capital, Male.
“The information says the Supreme Court might issue a ruling to impeach or remove the president from power,” he said, adding that government bodies had been given instructions not to carry out such an order.
Meanwhile, Parliament Secretary General Ahmed Mohamed, who is politically neutral, suddenly resigned on Sunday, citing personal reasons a day before the opening session of the body.
Mohamed had told Reuters he would abide by a separate Supreme Court ruling ordering the reinstatement of 12 legislators who defected from Yameen’s ruling party last year. Allowing them to return to the legislature would deprive him of a majority.
More than 100 riot police stood guard outside government offices in Male, including Parliament, as well as at Republic Square, a site of protests by opposition activists, although the streets were quiet.
The combined opposition said it feared a military takeover of the islands to preserve Yameen’s grip on power.
“The intimidation of the Supreme Court justices, with the highly irregular statement made by the attorney general defying the Supreme Court, supported by the two chiefs of the security forces, is tantamount to the effective sidelining of the judiciary and in direct contravention of the constitution,” it said in a statement.
“Maldivians are fearful that President Yameen is about to order a full military takeover of the country, in an attempt to ensure he is not removed from office.”
Biggest challenge
The crisis poses the biggest threat to Yameen’s control of the Maldives since he took power in 2013, defeating Nasheed in an election which the latter’s supporters said was rigged.
Yameen has stopped short of saying he will not obey the court order. He told a party meeting on Saturday he “did not expect the Supreme Court ruling at all”.
Critics of the government continued to face pressure. On Sunday, police raided the home of Hassan Saeed, the head of the judicial administration department, which the opposition said was considering a corruption investigation into Yameen.
Police said in a statement they were looking to arrest Saeed over an investigation into apartment purchases.
They were also inquiring about whether family members of Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and Supreme Court Justice Ali Hameed, who handed down last week’s ruling, were involved in the apartment purchases, police said.
Yameen’s senior ruling party members also called on authorities to shut down independent TV channel Raajje TV saying it was spreading discord.
In response, the US Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, issued a tweet to say it was “dismayed to hear rumours” about a potential shutdown, and calling it “yet another blow” to freedom of the press.
The political drama in the Maldives, which is made up of 26 coral atolls and 1,192 individual islands, centres on tiny, densely populated Male, the base of all its major institutions.
Besides political wrangling, the largely Muslim island chain is grappling with problems such as significant numbers of radicalised youth who enlisted to fight for the Islamic State militant group in the Middle East.
Yameen on Saturday fired his second police chief in three days.
Male (AFP): The beleaguered Maldives government Sunday ordered police and troops to resist any move by the Supreme Court to arrest or impeach President Abdulla Yameen over his refusal to release political prisoners.
The tiny tourist archipelago has been plunged into a political crisis pitting the country’s top court against Yameen, whose crackdown on dissent has tarnished the nation’s image as an upmarket holiday paradise.
The judges on Thursday night ordered authorities to release nine political dissidents and restore the seats of 12 legislators who had been sacked for defecting from Yameen’s party, ruling the cases were politically motivated.
But the Yameen government has so far refused to comply with the shock ruling. It has shuttered parliament and resisted international calls to respect the judicial order and restore democracy.
In a national television address on Sunday Attorney General Mohamed Anil remained defiant.
“Any Supreme Court order to arrest the president would be unconstitutional and illegal. So I have asked the police and the army not to implement any unconstitutional order,” Anil said.
Former president and current opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed described the government’s refusal to obey the Supreme Court as a “coup”.
Nasheed, who was controversially convicted of a terrorism charge and jailed for 13 years in 2015, urged police and troops to uphold the constitution.
“Statements made today by AG Anil...to disobey SC orders is tantamount to a coup. They, and President Yameen must resign immediately,” Nasheed said on Twitter. “Security services must uphold the constitution and serve the Maldivian people.” Nasheed lives abroad after travelling out of the country in 2016 on prison leave for medical treatment. He is currently in Colombo meeting Maldivian dissidents based in Sri Lanka.
The Supreme Court’s reinstatement of the dozen legislators gave the opposition a majority in the 85-member assembly, and it can now potentially impeach Yameen.
However the authorities shut parliament indefinitely on Saturday to avert such a move. Yameen also sacked two police chiefs after the court’s decision.
The main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party led by Nasheed has expressed fears that any move by the government to resist the Supreme Court’s order may trigger unrest in the nation of 340,000 Sunni Muslims.
The government said Friday it had concerns about releasing those convicted for “terrorism, corruption, embezzlement, and treason”.
The United Nations, Australia, Britain, Canada, India and the United States have welcomed the court’s decision as a move towards restoring democracy in the politically troubled Indian Ocean nation.
Nasheed, the country’s first democratically leader, was toppled in 2012. He was barred from contesting elections after his 2015 terrorism conviction, which was internationally criticised as politically motivated.
