Maldives leader says top court order a ‘coup’
SECURITY FORCES ARREST FORMER PRESIDENT GAYOOM AND THE CHIEF JUSTICE AS PRESIDENT YAMEEN IMPOSES EMERGENCY RULE
The president of the Maldives said yesterday he ordered a state of emergency to investigate “this plot, this coup” involving a Supreme Court ruling last week that ordered the release of imprisoned opposition leaders, including many of his political rivals.
“This is not a state of war, epidemic or natural disaster. This is something more dangerous,” President Yameen Abdul Gayoom said on national television. “This is an obstruction of the very ability of the state to function.”
Yameen, who has rolled back a series of democratic reforms during his five years in office, has said that the court overstepped its authority in ordering the politicians released, saying the order “blatantly disrupts the systems of checks and balances.”
Yameen’s government has moved to assert its power since the Supreme Court ruling, announcing a 15-day state of emergency on Monday night. Hours after the emergency was declared, security forces arrested two Supreme Court justices and a former ruler who is now an opposition leader.
Meanwhile, Yameen’s main political rival called on India to send an envoy — backed by its military — to free the imprisoned justices and opposition leaders.
An exiled former president of the Maldives urged India yesterday to send an envoy backed by the military to release political prisoners after the government of the Indian Ocean archipelago imposed a state of emergency and arrested two senior judges.
Best known as an “A-list” holiday destination, the Maldives plunged into crisis last week after the Supreme Court quashed terrorism convictions against nine leading opposition figures including the country’s exiled, first elected president, Mohammad Nasheed.
Having defied the court ruling to release the detainees, President Abdullah Yameen declared an emergency and ordered security forces to seize control of the court and arrest the chief justice and another judge. Nasheed, who was granted asylum by Britain after the government allowed him to leave jail for medical treatment abroad in 2016, sought Indian intervention to resolve the island nation’s most serious political crisis in years.
“On behalf of Maldivian people we humbly request India to send envoy, backed by its military, to release judges & political detainees... We request a physical presence,” Nasheed, who is currently in Colombo, said in a Twitter post. He also urged the United States to block financial transactions of Yameen’s government.
Since Yameen took control of the overwhelmingly Muslim country of 400,000 people in 2013, his government has faced heavy criticism over the detention of opponents, political influence over the judiciary and the lack of freedom of speech.
Addressing the nation on state television, Yameen said he had acted to prevent a coup, and suggested that the judges had chosen to side with his opponents because they were being investigated for corruption.
“I declared the state of emergency because there was no way to hold these justices accountable. This is a coup. I wanted to know how well planned this coup was,” he said. As part of the crackdown, police also detained Yameen’s half-brother, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had ruled the Maldives for 30 years until 2008 and now stands with the opposition. Gayoom was detained at his residence along with his sonin-law. But Gayoom’s son Faris, who was one of the imprisoned opposition leaders that the court ordered to be freed, was released yesterday, his lawyer told Reuters. Indian intervention in the Maldives would not be unprecedented, as New Delhi sent troops in 1988 to foil a coup, purportedly involving foreign mercenaries.