Daily Times

MALE/COLOMBO: The exiled former president of the Maldives on Wednesday accused authorities of ill-treatment of a supreme court judge thrown into prison following the imposition of emergency in the Indian Ocean island nation.

The Maldives has been in crisis since last week, when the Supreme Court quashed convictions ranging from corruption to terrorism of nine opposition figures, including former president Mohamed Nasheed, its first democratically elected leader.

Tension came to a head when President Abdulla Yameen’s government rejected the ruling, imposing an emergency on Monday and then, in the early hours of Tuesday, arresting the chief justice and another judge of the court.

Judge Ali Hameed was being harshly treated, Nasheed, who was granted asylum by Britain after the Male government allowed him to leave jail for medical treatment abroad in 2016, said in a Twitter post. Former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, 80, who was also arrested in the crackdown and sent to a prison island, had stopped eating, he added.

“I am told President Gayoom is not taking food, while Justice Ali Hameed has been ill treated,” Nasheed said on Twitter, but gave no further details.

Gayoom ruled the Maldives for 30 years until 2008, when Nasheed was elected president, and he now stands with the opposition in the fractious politics of the tropical islands, home to 400,000 people, most of them Muslims.

The Maldives, best known for its luxury beach resorts, has assumed greater importance since China began building political and economic ties in its so-called “String Of Pearls” strategy to create a network of ports in the Indian Ocean.

On Wednesday, China cautioned against any foreign meddling in the islands’ internal affairs, after Maldives’ opposition leaders called for intervention by its rival, India.

“The international community should play a constructive role from a position of respecting the Maldives’ sovereign rights, rather than taking actions that will complicate the situation,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, when asked about the possibility of military intervention. India, which has historically had greater clout in the islands, located near key shipping lanes, has sought to push back against China’s growing influence. India, which has expressed concern over the situation, has been silent on the calls for intervention. “We are disturbed by the declaration of a state of emergency in the Maldives, following the refusal of the government to abide by the unanimous ruling of the full bench of the Supreme Court on 1 February, and also by the suspension of constitutional rights,” its foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Published in Daily Times, February  8^th2018.