Exiled former Maldives president vows to run
Clashes break out after surprise ruling to free prisoners.
The exiled former president of the Maldives said Friday he will run again for office, hours after a surprise Supreme Court decision to free a group of political prisoners led to overnight clashes in the capital of the Indian Ocean archipelago.
President Yameen Abdul Gayoom had been set to run for re-election virtually unopposed, with all of his opponents either jailed or exiled. But ex-President Mohammed Nasheed, who is among the prisoners ordered freed, said he would challenge Yameen, who has rolled back many democratic reforms since coming to power five years ago.
“I can contest and I will contest and hopefully we will win it again,” Nasheed told the AP in Colombo, the capital of neighboring Sri Lanka.
Nasheed was jailed in 2016 but received asylum in Britain later that year after traveling there on medical leave from prison. He has lived in exile ever since. Nasheed also called for reforms in the country’s security services, telling the AP that “a small element within the military and police want to prop up the dictatorship” of Yameen.
The capital city, Male, was calm Friday, with stores open and people going to work, despite the overnight violence between police and protesters. Scuffles between protesters and police broke out again Friday night, and two people were arrested, but the confrontation ended quickly.
The Thursday night court ruling ordered the release of the political dissidents, saying their guilty verdicts had been influenced by politics. It also ordered new trials for all nine. It was not immediately clear how retrials would affect the upcoming elections, but the opposition alliance welcomed the ruling in a statement, saying it “effectively ends President Yameen’s authoritarian rule.”
Maldives Attorney General Mohamed Anil has raised the government’s concerns about the court ruling with the chief justice, given that the prisoners were convicted of offenses such as terrorism, corruption, embezzlement and treason, a government statement said Friday.
“The attorney general stated that the administration has highlighted concerns over the consequences that may be presented in the immediate implementation of the court’s ruling,” the statement said.
Hundreds of joyous Nasheed supporters poured into the streets of Male after the verdict, waving flags. But clashes broke out quickly after Yameen fired the country’s police chief, whose department had announced that it would uphold the Supreme Court verdict. The clashes lasted about three hours, with police dispersing rock-throwing crowds using pepper spray and batons.
Atul Keshap, the U.S. ambassador to the Maldives, welcomed the Supreme Court order. “I urge the government and security services to respect this ruling, which bolsters democracy and rule of law for all Maldivians,” he wrote on Twitter.