Maldives govt warns SC against impeaching prez
MALE: The beleaguered Maldives government on 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.
Police detained two opposition lawmakers as they returned to the country on Sunday, as the political crisis in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation deepened with its top court pitted against the president.
The main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said its MPs tried to stage a meeting in defiance of a weekend order suspending parliament, but they were pushed back by armed troops.
Security forces have been deployed inside the national parliament — known as the People’s Majlis — since March last year when Yameen ordered them to evict dissident lawmakers.
The president’s crackdown on dissent has tarnished the Maldives’ image as an upmarket holiday paradise and sparked calls from the United Nations and several countries to restore the rule of law in the fledgling democracy.
The Supreme Court on Thursday night ordered the 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, resisting international pressure to respect the decision.