Maldives top judge arrested amid state of emergency

The Maldives opposition leader and two Supreme Court judges were arrested early on Tuesday. The government on Monday declared a state of emergency in the Indian Ocean nation that has been increasingly in turmoil in the days since the court ordered several jailed politicians to be freed.

The charges against opposition leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom include bribery and attempting to overthrow the government, his lawyer, Maumoon Hameed, said on Twitter. Gayoom was president from 1978 to 2008 when the Maldives became a multiparty democracy. Gayoom is the half-brother of the current president, under whose rule the archipelago has lost many of its democratic gains.

The president of the Maldives said the country's state of emergency was imposed to investigate "this plot, this coup" of the Supreme Court ruling.

Speaking on national television on Tuesday, President Yameen Abdul Gayoom said the court's actions are "an obstruction of the very ability of this state to function."

TRT World's Kieran Burke reports.

15-day emergency

The 15-day emergency decree gives the government sweeping powers to make arrests, search and seize property and restricts freedom of assembly, officials said.

Soon after the declaration, security forces stormed into the Supreme Court building, where Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and judge Ali Hamid were arrested. The charges against them have not been specified. The whereabouts of the court's other two judges were not known on Tuesday morning.

Since the surprise, unanimous ruling last week ordering the release of imprisoned opposition leaders, President Yameen Abdul Gayoom has lashed out at the court, opposition protests have spilled into the streets of the capital Male and soldiers in riot gear have stopped lawmakers from meeting in the parliament building.

In a letter to the court released by the president's office, Yameen said the court's order to release prisoners had encroached on the powers of the state and was an "infringement of national security and public interest." He urged the court to "review the concerns" of the government.

The government has also said the court has not properly responded to letters citing problems with implementing its order, including that the cases against the political prisoners are at different legal stages. 

A Supreme Court statement on Sunday said, "There are no obstacles in implementing the ruling ... and that this has been informed to the Prosecutor General's office."

Indian envoy requested

The main political rival to the president of the Maldives called on India on Tuesday to send an envoy — backed by its military — to free the imprisoned Supreme Court justices and opposition leaders.

"President Yameen has illegally declared martial law and overrun the state. We must remove him from power," former president Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected leader, said in a statement.

Nasheed was one of the opposition leaders the Supreme Court had ordered freed, ruling that the guilty verdicts had been politically influenced.

In addition to ordering the release of the political prisoners, the court also reinstated 12 lawmakers who had been ousted for switching allegiance to the opposition. 

When those lawmakers return, Yameen's Progressive Party of the Maldives will lose its majority in the 85-member parliament, which could result in the legislative body functioning as a rival power to the president.

Decline in democracy

The Maldives became a multiparty democracy 10 years ago after Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's rule, during which he was repeatedly the only candidate for the presidency.

Nasheed won the nation's first democratic election in 2008 but resigned during his term following protests over the arrest of a judge. He lost the 2013 presidential election to Yameen and then was convicted under Maldives' anti-terrorism laws over ordering the judge's arrest. The trial was widely condemned by international rights groups.

Nasheed was granted medical leave while serving 13 years in prison and travelled to Britain, where he has lived since 2016 since being granted asylum.

Nasheed said last week after the court ruling that he would mount a fresh challenge for the presidency this year.

Yameen had been set to run for re-election virtually unopposed, with all of his opponents either jailed or exiled.