Maldives SC revokes order to free high-profile prisoners
Maldives' Supreme court on Tuesday revoked an order to release nine highprofile political prisoners, hours after former president Mohamed Nasheed sought India's military intervention to resolve the ongoing political crisis in his country following 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 a state of emergency on Monrday. In a late 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 "in light of the concerns raised by the President".
The amendment to the ruling by the Supreme Court on February 1 also omits the part that says the case against the Supreme Court judges was not received by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC).
Earlier on Tuesday, President Yameen accused the detained judges of plotting to overthrow him.
"I had to declare a national 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 or coup 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 his home.
Concerned over political turmoil in Maldives, India, which is monitoring the situation very "closely", on Tuesday said it was "disturbed" on the declaration of the emergency by the Maldivian government and described as a matter of "concern" the arrests of the chief justice and political figures there.