Police in Maldives arrested former president Mohamed Nasheed on Sunday after a court said he might flee the country to avoid hearings on terrorism charges. It led to clashes between his supporters and the authorities.
Mr Nasheed, Maldives’ first democratically elected president, had been facing criminal charges over his order to arrest a judge in January 2011. Mr Nasheed stepped down in early 2012, saying he had been overthrown in a coup.
Last week the prosecutor-general withdrew the original charges against Mr Nasheed, but issued an arrest warrant on Sunday under new charges of terrorism related to the arrest of the judge four years ago. The first hearing will be on Monday.
Police used teargas to disperse protesters from Mr Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) as he was taken from his home.
“I call on the public to do all that is necessary to stop the harassment meted out to me and other politicians to save Maldives,” Mr Nasheed said to reporters in Male while being taken to a detention centre on a separate island.
Last week Mr Nasheed asked India to intervene if president Abdulla Yameen, to whom Mr Nasheed lost the last election in 2013, imposed emergency rule.
An opposition alliance between the MDP and Jumhooree Party, which broke away from Mr Yameen’s ruling coalition, has held street demonstrations in recent weeks accusing the government of breaching the constitution a number of times.
Earlier this month defence minister Mohamed Nazim was arrested on terrorism charges while MDP’s chairperson Ali Waheed was taken into police custody on Sunday.
Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, MDP’s international spokesman, told Reuters they were planning a big protest on February 27th and hoped some members of parliament would switch from the government to the opposition at the next parliamentary session on March 3rd.
The MDP said in a statement it now feared the actions by the Maldives government may “lead to uncontrollable scenes of unrest and confrontations on the streets”.
Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Muaz Ali, however, tweeted: "I fully assure you this government won't arrest or detain any citizen unlawfully."
Maldives is a group of more than 1,000 coral islands south west of India. – Reuters