Defiant Maldives president declares a 15-day state of emergency

ABDULLA YAMEEN, the president of the Maldives, has declared a state of emergency for 15 days as security forces stormed the Supreme Court in an escalation of a power struggle with the archipelago’s top court.

Police also arrested Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the former president, at his residence, along with his son-in-law. Mr Gayoom is Mr Yameen’s halfbrother and ruled the country in the Indian Ocean for 30 years until 2008, but is now in opposition.

His detention is further evidence of a bid by Mr Yameen to strengthen his grip on power. The president has defied a Supreme Court ruling ordering jailed opposition leaders to be freed, including Mr Gayoom’s son Farish, an opposition politician.

Mr Yameen has ruled since 2013 but faces mounting pressure at home and from the United States and India to release Mohamed Nasheed, the president between 2008 and 2012, from a 13-year jail sentence, and free eight other opponents from prison.

“The president has been compelled to declare a state of emergency due to the risk currently posed to national security,” said a statement from the president’s office.

“Implementation of the Supreme Court ruling is – in its current form – incompatible with maintenance of public safety.”

China, the United States and India issued travel advisories for the Maldives, a country of 400,000 people best known as a beach paradise for tourists.

The tumult comes during the peak tourism season. Visitors brought in $2.7billion of revenue for the Maldives in 2016. Eva Abdulla, an opposition legislator, said the state of emergency revealed Mr Yameen’s desperation.

“It only serves to show an isolated man who no longer has the confidence of the Maldivian people and independent institutions. He has no democratic mandate to govern and must resign immediately,” she said in a statement.