Former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed who was detained overnight and released from custody has re-joined his party’s ‘Journey of Pledges’ campaign for elections. He travelled to the islands in South Huvadhu Atoll, Fuvahmulah of Gnaviyani Atoll and Addu atoll to carry out a door-to-door campaign and policy workshops to gather support ahead of the next election. [...]

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Nasheed intensifies campaign to regain Maldivian presidency

By Ali Naafiz
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Former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed who was detained overnight and released from custody has re-joined his party’s ‘Journey of Pledges’ campaign for elections. He travelled to the islands in South Huvadhu Atoll, Fuvahmulah of Gnaviyani Atoll and Addu atoll to carry out a door-to-door campaign and policy workshops to gather support ahead of the next election.

The five-boat flotilla returned to Male yesterday after the completion of the last event at the Equatorial Convention Centre in Addu atoll Hithadhoo. Tension in the Maldives escalated once again when police arrested Mr. Nasheed on Monday and produced him before court on charges of ignoring summons.

In this photograph taken on March 24, former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed (C) walks from a press conference in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. (AFP)

The magistrate court in Hulhumale issued the warrant on Mr. Nasheed, after he defied two summonses to turn up to his trial over the illegal detention of a senior judge. The formed President resigned in February in what he called was a coup.
Mr. Nasheed, however, ignored the summonses and left the capital Male on October 1 in a flotilla of boats hired by his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) for a 13-day campaign tour of the southern atolls.

Policemen wearing balaclavas travelled in speedboats to the island of Fares-Maathoda in South Huvadhu atoll, where Nasheed and senior party officials were campaigning for the next presidential election, and took him into custody on Monday morning.
The former president was later transferred to the police detention facility in Dhoonidhoo island before being taken to Male for trial on Tuesday. He was released from custody after the hearing.

Meanwhile, the London-based rights group Amnesty International has accused the Maldivian police of using excessive force and pepper spray during Mr. Nasheed’s arrest.

AI cited eyewitnesses as saying the police vandalised the house where Mr. Nasheed was staying and attacked peaceful protestors outside, including Mr. Nasheed’s foreign minister Ahmed Naseem.

The police, however, denied these charges. A police spokesperson said the former president was given the right to consult an attorney and meet his relatives. The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) and the Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) were invited to observe the operation, the spokesperson added.

Local newspaper reports also confirmed the presence of human rights observers in Dhoonidhoo when Mr. Nasheed was detention.
Meanwhile, the United States has said it is looking into the allegations of human rights violations noted by Amnesty.
“We’ve seen the reports by Amnesty International about allegations of police brutality. We would take any kinds of allegations of police abuse very seriously.

We are looking into them, but we haven’t been able to confirm them. We have been trying to get in touch with the former president, with whom we’ve had a regular dialogue all the way through this, to determine whether there’s any truth to this,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters.

The US, one of the first to recognise the new government led by Mr. Nasheed’s deputy Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, also denied reports that it was involved in the arrest.

“US law enforcement cooperation includes activities that focus on professionalisation and professional development of the police and places special emphasis on the need to adhere to international standards of human rights and the strengthening of democratic institutions and the rule of law,” the US embassy in Colombo said in a statement.

Mr. Nasheed, who became the country’s first democratically elected president in 2008, is charged under article 81 of the penal code with the illegal arrest and detention of Criminal Court chief justice Abdulla Mohamed.

Nasheed denied the charges at the first hearing on Tuesday. Mr. Nasheed and his party maintain that the charges are a politically motivated attempt to prevent him from contesting the next presidential election – scheduled for July 2013 at the earliest




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