NEW DELHI: The strategically located Maldives in the Indian Ocean remained in the throes of the worst political crisis to have hit the archipelago in the past few years with President Abdulla Yameen showing no sign of implementing the Supreme Court ruling which ordered the release of all political prisoners, including former President Mohamed Nasheed.
“This will be sorted out soon…I’ll deal with the Supreme Court,” Yameen, according to sources in Male, told a gathering of his supporters on Saturday.

Senior MDP (the main opposition party) leader and former foreign minister Ahmed Naseem told TOI that Yameen was working to appoint his “cronies” to the Supreme Court bench. ”We believe Yameen might threaten the sitting bench with arrest if they don’t revert the decision,” said Naseem.

“There is absolutely no indication that Yameen is going to abide by the Court Ruling. We will welcome any action by India which can help change that,” he added.

It is significant that while countries like the US, Britain, Canada and India have weighed in with the assertion that implementing the ruling was important for restoring democracy in the country, China has so far remained quiet on the issue. It is no secret that Yameen has a powerful backer in Beijing and that he has skilfully played India and China against each other despite his stated India First policy.

After the court ruling, Nasheed has declared that he can and will contest the elections which should take place this year. In an interaction with TOI in February last year, Nasheen had said that India had a moral obligation to facilitate“ inclusive, free and fair elections in the Maldives” in 2018.

Yameen’s government Saturday announced postponement of the functioning of Maldives’ Parliament due to “security reasons” further fuelling the perception that he was not going to follow the court order. An agency report late evening quoted him as saying that he was willing to hold early elections and that he was also looking to ensure that the court ruling is implemented in a manner that it doesn’t cause “any difficulties to people” .

The joint Maldivian opposition, led by Nasheed’s MDP, again appealed to the international community, including India, to do everything “in their power to impress upon the Government of Maldives, security services and institutions to respect the Supreme Court ruling, and to uphold the Constitution and abide by Maldives commitments under international law to protect civil and political rights of its citizens”.

The apex court order has, according to the opposition, also cancelled an earlier anti-defection ruling of 2017, thus reinstating 12 opposition MPs. This has given the opposition a clear majority in Parliament and that’s the reason the opposition believes Yameen can no longer remain in power.

The ruling said all political prisoners must be released as the trials against them violated the Maldives’ Constitution and international law. The ruling also stated that political pressure was applied on the prosecutors and the courts during these trials.

In late January, as Naseem said, the opposition petitioned the apex court to temporarily remove President Yameen Abdulla from office in order to investigate unprecedented “grand corruption and increasing authoritarianism”.

“Instead of ruling on the matter, the Supreme Court reinstated parliamentarians that were removed from their seats for mounting an impeachment motion against the Speaker of Majlis, Abdulla Maseeh, a key ally of the president. The verdict also declared that all political prisoners were imprisoned after severely flawed trials, and therefore must be immediately released and granted re-trials,” said Naseem.
Naseem said that Yameen had also removed police oommissioner Ahmed Areef after he refused to delay the enforcement of the verdict. The opposition also alleged that many employees of government-affiliated companies were forced to come out on the streets on Saturday in support of Yameen for their “fear of unemployment”.
“At the rally he said that the government is enforcing the decision, however, commented that his Attorney General Mohamed Anil is “negotiating” with the Supreme Court,” said Naseem.
The joint opposition also said in its statement issued Saturday that the government had resorted to using undue force against demonstrators celebrating the apex court’s ruling. Source : timesofindia