Law allows monitoring of IS sympathizers
Bid to prevent violence Outsiders show little inclination to intervene
MALE, Maldives, Oct 29, (AP): The island nation of the Maldives has passed a law allowing authorities to install cameras in the homes of people they suspect of being sympathetic to the Islamic State group and arrest them if they try to join the militants overseas, the home minister said Thursday.
The anti-terror legislation, signed by President Yameen Abdul Gayoom on Wednesday, follows reports that many IS recruits were coming from the Indian Ocean archipelago of just 350,000 people.
The opposition criticized the law as draconian and warned it could be used to crack down on dissent.
“This is an unconstitutional law that will be used to suppress dissent and jail opposition leaders,” opposition Maldivian Democratic party spokesman Hamid Abdul Gaffoor said.
The actual number of Maldivian fighters in the extremist Sunni group is unknown, but local newspapers carry frequent reports of Maldivians wounded or killed while fighting in the Middle East.
Home Minister Umar Naseer said the government has details on seven Maldivian IS fighters, while another 10 people were stopped in Sri Lanka and Malaysia on suspicion of trying to get to Syria to join the group. They were not arrested because there previously was no legal provision, Naseer said. The new law, however, would allow for arrests.
The law defines terrorism broadly, including cases of endangering another person, hijacking a transportation vessel, kidnapping, endangering public safety, vandalism and causing health hazards.
The government can now seek a court order to fit suspected IS sympathizers with electronic monitoring tags, listen to their phone conversations and prevent them from traveling abroad if the trip is deemed suspicious.
The legislation allows the president to declare any group a terrorist organization. Anyone belonging to such an organization would then be in danger of being imprisoned for up to 15 years.
Anyone who gives a speech that authorities believe encourages terrorism can be prosecuted, along with any media that report on such speeches. Authorities can hold suspects for 96 hours for questioning without a court hearing, and sus- COLOMBO, Oct 29, (AFP): To honeymooners lounging on its sparkling sands, the Maldives may appear the closest thing to paradise on earth.
But away from the beaches, a gripping but vicious power struggle is playing out, which observers say has yet to run its course and in which outsiders show little inclination to intervene.
The vice-president is behind bars over claims he tried to blow up his boss on his speedboat, joining the island’s first democratically-elected leader.
The president’s election running mate is on the run, and the presidential spokesman was sacked last week.
Synonymous with the jet-set, the Maldives is perhaps the ideal setting for a drama with storylines fit for a Dallas-stye soap opera and a cast including George Clooney’s wife Amal and rival lawyer Cherie Blair, wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair.
Largely operating behind the scenes is the patriarchal figure of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, a 77-yearold former ruler who critics say is using his half-brother, Abdulla Yameen, as a proxy president.
“What we are seeing today is the return of the dictator through his halfbrother,” said opposition Maldivian Democratic Party spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor.
Gayoom ruled with an iron fist for 30 years before losing the island’s first genuine elections to MDP leader and one-time prisoner Mohammed Nasheed.
Barely three years later, climate activist Nasheed was toppled when security chiefs and judges appointed by Gayoom revolted against attempted reforms.
Since then, observers say Gayoom’s clan has steadily re-exert-
pects are allowed to meet with their lawyers only in the presence of police. Naseer said the government would not abuse the powers, and insisted the intention of the law is to prevent violence.
But in a country where the vice president, former defense minister and former president are all currently behind bars in different cases, critics say the legislation is a major cause for concern and evidence that ed control, flattening anyone in its way.
When Nasheed attempted a comeback in 2013, the election was twice postponed before Yameen won a controversial run-off.
Nasheed was subsequently jailed for 13 years for “terrorism” related to the stand-off that ended in his ouster.
Allies have also run into trouble, with Vice-President Ahmed Adeeb arrested last week for treason over the speedboat explosion that left Yameen unscathed but injured the first lady.
Adeeb’s predecessor Mohamed Jameel was sacked in July for treason while travelling in South-East Asia. He has yet to return home.
Then defence minister Mohamed Nazim was jailed in March for trying to topple the government.
“Gayoom and Yameen got together to keep Nasheed out of power and they succeeded. Yameen is now moving to eliminate any potential challenge,” said a Western diplomatic source.
“There’s bad blood within the ruling clan, but they have united to keep others out. We have not seen the end of the purge.”
But Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon, who is Gayoom’s daughter and Yameen’s niece, “strongly denied” her uncle was purging his rivals.
“It is a question to do with upholding the law and second his expectations when it comes to delivery,” she told AFP.
Amal Clooney, who is trying to get Nasheed’s sentence overturned, has described the human rights situation as “deteriorating day by day”.
Muslim-majority Maldives markets itself as the “sunny side of life”, turning a blind eye to holidaymakers’ marital status and letting them drink alcohol.
the politically tense nation is sliding back toward autocracy.
Former President Mohamed Nasheed’s lawyer, Amal Clooney, recently said the Maldives has the world’s highest IS recruitment per capita, but gave no details or numbers.
Nasheed is appealing a 13-year prison sentence for ordering the arrest of a judge while he was president in 2008-11. He was forced to
But it is a different story for the local population who can be flogged for having sex outside marriage.
A mother-of-five was sentenced to death by stoning earlier this month for adultery, although the Supreme Court later overturned the punishment.
As part of efforts to improve its image, the government hired Cherie Blair, who denounced Clooney’s call for sanctions as “inappropriate and unjustified” while arguing Nasheed’s trial followed due process.
The UN has criticised “serious flaws” in the trial and sentencing, which came less than three weeks after his arrest, and US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke of “troubling signs” for Maldivian democracy.
After Nasheed’s arrest, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shelved plans to visit the Maldives in what was interpreted as a rebuke to Yameen.
But pressure is muted, with Modi wary of driving the Maldives into the arms of China, which is seeking strategic alliances in India’s backyard.
“Kerry did take note but the rest of the world has other things to worry about,” said Gareth Price of the London-based think-tank Chatham House.
Price said Yameen was “testing the limits” of the international community’s patience, but added that India’s hands were tied by its reluctance to breach its principle of non-interference.
Tourism, the economy’s mainstay, is booming, generating $2.3 billion in 2013.
Holidaymakers paying top dollar to relax on one of 1,192 atolls are usually whisked away by seaplane or boat, bypassing the crowded island capital Male, where extra police have been deployed since Adeeb’s arrest.
resign amid opposition protests following the judge’s arrest, which courts said was unconstitutional.
Gayoom’s former defense minister, Mohamed Nazim, was imprisoned for 11 years for firearm possession, and current Vice President Ahmed Adeeb was arrested over the weekend on suspicion of treason for allegedly plotting to assassinate Gayoom in a boat explosion on Sept 28.