Maldives officials detail ‘plot’ to overthrow govt
COLOMBO: Two arrested Supreme Court justices and a former president had been plotting to overthrow the Maldives government, officials said, announcing they had found more than $200,000 in suspicious money in searches since a state of emergency was declared last week.
Lawyers and opposition leaders quickly rejected the accusations, saying President Abdulla Yameen was using the state of emergency to weaken his political opponents.
“A proper investigation would not hide under cover of the state of emergency, or shy away from the clear light of rule of law,” Maumoon Hameed, the lawyer for former dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, tweeted. Gayoom, now an opposition leader, was among a group of prominent Maldivians arrested last week.
A spokesman for the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party, dismissed the accusations. “All you can say is that it’s a big joke,” he said.
A Sunday statement from the president’s office said Gayoom had bribed government officials and judges and encouraged riots. It also said he and the two arrested justices were “attempting to overthrow the government”. During the searches, “large amounts of cash have been discovered ... hidden under a mattress” in the home of a court official, according to a Sunday police statement. Authorities also found a bag with $215,000 in US currency and about $10,000 worth of Maldivian currency belonging to one of the arrested justices, the statement said.
A total of eight people have been arrested, officials said.
Political chaos has shaken the government since early February, when the Supreme Court ordered that a group of imprisoned opposition leaders, including Nasheed, be freed.
The government quickly pushed back against that order, eventually declaring a state of emergency and arresting the two Supreme Court justices and other politicians.