Emergency call as court stormed
MALDIVES: The Maldives government has declared a 15-day state of emergency as a political crisis deepens amid an increasingly bitter standoff between the president and the Supreme Court.
Hours after the emergency was declared yesterday, soldiers forced their way into the Supreme Court building, where the judges were believed to be taking shelter, said Ahmed Maloof, an opposition MP.
Soon afterwards, security forces arrested opposition leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on charges that included bribery and attempting to overthrow the government, his lawyer said. Gayoom was the nation’s president from 1978 to 2008 and is the half-brother of the current president, Yameen Abdul Gayoom.
A surprise Supreme Court ruling last week ordering the release of imprisoned opposition leaders has led to growing turmoil, with Yameen lashing out at the court, opposition protests spilling on to the streets of the capital, Male, and soldiers in riot gear deployed to the par- liament building to stop lawmakers from meeting.
The emergency decree gave the government sweeping powers to make arrests and search and seize property, and restricted freedom of assembly, officials said.
The United States strongly criticised the decree. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Yameen had ‘‘systematically alienated his coalition, jailed or exiled every major opposition political figure’' since his election in 2013. She called on Yameen, the army, and police to comply with the rule of law, and for the constitutional rights of Maldivians to be restored.
The government did not immediately comment.
Yameen’s main rival, former president Mohamed Nasheed, the country’s first democratically elected leader, who lives in exile, urged people not to obey what he called an ‘‘unlawful order’’.
Yameen, in a letter to the court released by his office, said its order had encroached on the powers of the state and was an ‘‘infringement of national security and public interest’'.
In addition to ordering the release of the political prisoners, the court also reinstated 12 lawmakers who had been ousted for switching allegiance to the opposition. When those lawmakers return, Yameen’s Progressive Party of the Maldives will lose its majority in the 85-member parliament.
The Maldives became a multiparty democracy 10 years ago after Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s rule, during which he was repeatedly the only candidate for the presidency.
But the nation lost much of its democratic gains after Yameen, who has maintained a tight grip on power, was elected in 2013. He had been set to run for re-election this year virtually unopposed, with all of his opponents either jailed or exiled.
Nasheed said last week after the court ruling that he would mount a fresh challenge for the presidency this year. – AP