The Prosecutor General’s (PG) office has asked the police to provide details of its response to the protest held by ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) outside the Supreme Court on Thursday, which later spread to the residence of the former President.
Prosecutor General Ahmed Muiz told Minivan he was unable to comment on the matter at this time.
However Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said this was the first time the PG had made such a request.
“They are requesting details of what happened,” Shiyam confirmed, but said the PG had not notified police of a potential course of action or what it was looking for.
Shiyam pointed out that demonstrations in certain areas, including courts and army gates, are prohibited by the Regulation on Assembly.
“Members of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (DRP) have both gathered in these areas though, even though we have requested them not to. Some of them have gone to the army gates and the President’s gate as well, so occasionally we have to address the issue,” he said.
The police have been asked to provide the information before Wednesday this week.
On Thursday October 20 the MDP national council conducted an emergency meeting and approved a resolution to launch a protest against the judiciary, claiming judges were unduly influenced by the former President and his half-brother MP Abdulla Yameen.
The protesters gathered at the Supreme Court before marching towards the former President’s building Endherimaage, where violent clashes erupted between MDP activists and a few Gayoom supporters blocking the entrance to his residence.
Minivan News journalists at the scene also observed gravel, rocks, hot water and sharp metal raining down on protesters from the top floors or terrace of Endherimaage.
Several activists claimed they saw Gassan Maumoon, former President Gayoom’s son, throw stones and pour boiling hot water on the protesters. MDP activists meanwhile threw large stones at Endhirmaage and attempted to break down the door. Some windows of the house were smashed while a car parked outside was damaged.
A 17-year-old, identified as Hussein Hassan, was rushed to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) with critical injuries after a block of wood apparently thrown from the building hit his head. IGMH later confirmed that the boy was conscious and his condition stable.
Police summoned Gassan Maumoon, son of the former President, for questioning on Saturday after a number of MDP members alleged they had seen him throw the block of wood from the balcony. Police subsequently arrested Gassan and took him to the prison island of Dhoonidhoo, and presented him at court this afternoon. The hearing is currently ongoing.
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Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom needs a quiet life free from the confusions of local politics in its infancy for which he is responsible wholly. He had persistantly refused to introduce modern democracy during his tenure of 30 years until, of course, the last few years of his time in office. The pressure for democracy in the country built up to the extent that no matter how hard he resisted Maumoon could not hold it back when finally the new constitution leading to a liberal democracy in the Maldives was passed and put into force. In the first multi-party presidential election in the country the electors said no to the long-time president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in 2008. Shortly after he admitted to his failure to bring his party to power he publicly announced that he would resign from politics and return to a family life after 30 years of the hard work of nation building. However, to everyone's surprise, he returned to politics once again inviting all the trouble to his life which was supposed to be the quietest in the country after serving the people for almost half of his life time. His family is now suffering from the consequence of the wrong decision that Maumoon made to remain in poltical spotlight.
The PG or any one interested in establishing the facts of a case would not ask the one who is to blame for details of what he did or did not. How could the PG expect police to admit to its failure in an account of its response to the violent protest against the courts loyal to the former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom? The PG cannot expect police to make incriminating remarks on its part in preventing a peaceful protest from becoming violent.
The continuing presence of former president Gayoom and his entire family in politics, as if they did nothing wrong in their thirty years of absolute political power, is not a good thing for the country. If readers look carefully at what has been happening in Muslim countries like Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, Morocco and Jordan, they should be wishing that Madives does not go through those terrible things that the other Muslim countries I have mentioned are suffering.
People in power now, the MDP etc., are full of people who have gone through tremendous pain and suffering under the autocratic rule of Gayoom and his family.
President Mohamed Nasheed's story is world- famous. It is a representative story of what Muslim dictators can do to politically ambitious young people who are opposed to the ruling Muslim dictators.
The fact that Gayoom and family are still a force to be reckoned with in the Maldives is not something I enjoy reading about, although I do not find it difficult to understand that it is so.
Stalin continues to be popular in Russia although he died a long time ago. Hitler is not short of admirers although he brought shame on the German nation and the threat of extinction to Jews, Gipsies and millions of other human-beings including homosexuals and the mentally and physically disabled.
Many people in the Maldives are brain-washed and bribed by their rulers. Islam is also used to keep people in subjugation.
I hope that the younger generation of which President Nasheed and Opposition leader Thasmeen (DRP) represent will create a different kind of Maldives than the Maldives I saw under Mohamed Ameen, Ibrahim Nasir and Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
The main reason why I am in Finland and not Maldives is that I did not feel comfortable with the regimes that ruled the country. I could not trust not only my Maldivian rulers. I could not trust even ordinary, decent, Maldivian people.
One such decent and ordinary man has been Koli Ali Maniku, who has long been the uncrowned king of Maldives.A shrewd businessman, Koli preferred to live outside Maldives. Though he held some nominal government jobs like that of Minister of State, and Adviser to the President, he stayed outside the political arena, and even served his country well.
I am a different kind of person than Koli. I had no place in the Maldives.Pity.
Michael Fahmy I like your comment very much except for the bit about Koli Ali Maniku. He was far from decent and played the most dangerous political game under Nasir and Maumoon. I hope he's not able to twist the current president under his little finger.
koli ali maniku "a decent and ordinary man"?
@micheal
Gayyoom is a dictator but we also have to believe that President nasheed is no different. he is daily bullying parliament n judiciary using Reeko Moosa's drug gang n police.
Where are the burnt victims??