Category: News in Brief

Man arrested in connection to March 5 unrest

Police have arrested a 26 year-old male in connection to unrest at a protest outside Male’ City Council on March 5, local media reported.

Hussain Abdullah, of Blue Bird house in Male’, was arrested on Monday (March 11) after police posted a video online searching for individuals who had allegedly caused unrest during the protest.

The demonstration on March 5 followed the arrest of former President Mohamed Nasheed ahead of his scheduled trial hearing at Hulhumale’ Magistrate Court the next day (March 6).

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DhiFM Plus forced to apologise after allegedly airing pornographic content

DhiFM Plus has been accused of violating the broadcasting code of conduct after allegedly airing pornographic content during a late night news show.

The Maldives Broadcasting Commission (MBC) said that DhiFM Plus has been notified regarding the controversial content shown on February 8 during the 10pm news, local media reported.

MBC has now called for Maldives Media Company, who own DhiFM Plus, to air a statement of apology without any reservations from the station between 08:00am to 11:00 am before March 13.

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‘India needs to help protect democracy in Maldives’: Firstpost

India, despite considerable public opinion that supported Nasheed, sought to take a seemingly principled stand that it won’t meddle with another country’s sovereignty even while maintaining that it respected Nasheed’s privileges as a former head of state while he stayed put in its building in Male, writes G Pramod Kumar for India’s Firstpost publication.

As the impasse continued – Nasheed staying at the IHC and the Maldivian judiciary and the government in hot pursuit – India sent a team for negotiations to Male. Apparently, they agreed to some common grounds following which Nasheed walked out of the building on 23 February.

In less than two weeks, he was arrested and taken to Dhoonidhoo detention centre, where had been lodged and allegedly tortured during his pro-democracy campaign while Gayoom was in power, felling fears that the government has reneged on its promise to India and he might be tortured again. Amnesty International accused the government of using excessive force while arresting him.

However, he was released four days later, clearly indicating that the government was not keen to keep him in jail.“Honorable judges, this charge against me is a deliberate attempt by the prosecutor general to bar the presidential candidate of the largest opposition political party of this country from contesting the next presidential elections,” he told the court. His case will come up for hearing end of March and he still has a travel ban on him that restricts him to Male.

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Fire causes MVR 2 million worth of damage

Over MVR 2 milllion (US$128,700) worth of damage has been predicted by the owners of ‘Parkway 3’ shop, after a fire damaged the building on Saturday (March 9).

Director of Golden Lane – the company that operates Parkway 3 – Abdulla Saeed told local media that the fire had damaged the interior of the building and large quantities of furniture.

“The ground and first floors are used as a show room. The fire ignited in a store room on the first floor. Nobody accesses that area.

“That’s where the fire ignited and the first floor sustained some damages, the fire caused large damages to the building too. The ceiling was also burned,” Saeed told  SunOnline.

Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) firefighters attended the scene on Saturday, extinguishing the fire around 4.00pm.

Saeed said that attempts by MNDF to extinguish the fire meant that the area had to be hose with large amounts of water, which had then caused water to drip down onto the furniture placed below the ground floor.

The MNDF were reported by local media to have geared up two ‘known’ activists of the government-aligned Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) with gas masks and oxygen tanks at one point, before leading them into the burned building.

One of the affected offices, according to local media, had been used by PPM in previous instances, and had also been used by the former PPM deputy leader for his own personal business.

According to Sun Online, the two PPM activists went inside the building to retrieve some ‘very important objects’, but it was not clear what those objects were.

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Stab victim’s wounds “self-inflicted”

A 22 year-old man with seven stab wounds on his left arm was found Saturday (March 9) night in front of a shop on a main thoroughfare in Male’, Majeedhee Magu, reports local media.

Bystanders near the area informed a patrolling police officer, and the person was taken to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).

Police claim the young man stabbed himself and he is being tested to see whether he was intoxicated when the stabbing occurred, according to local media.

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Setbacks in Maldives have security implications for India: Deccan Herald

The Maldives has been generating bad news for some time. On February 12, former president Nasheed refused to honour court summons and threatened with arrest, sought refuge in the Indian embassy. India was in a quandary, writes R S Chhikara for the Deccan Herald.

India wants democracy to take root in the Maldives and Nasheed was the only democratically elected president of the country.

His arrest and conviction would disqualify him from participating in the upcoming elections. Indian diplomacy went into overdrive to ensure participatory elections that would require Nasheed’s participation as a free man. Nasheed expected Indian support but India could not be seen to be partisan.

The government in Male has for the time being desisted from arresting and trying Nasheed but the reprieve is only for a month and there are signs that an agreement to this effect, if one exists, may not after all, be honoured. If that happens, Waheed and Gayoom will have a cake walk. Democracy will lose out.

India’s leverage with Male does not appear to be working and there lies the rub.

After a spell of autocratic rule by Ibrahim Nasir and Abdul Gayoom lasting nearly 45 years, Nesheed became the first elected president of the country in 2008. In January 2012, Nasheed ordered the arrest of Abdullah Mohammad, Chief of Criminal Court who was accused of blocking legitimate legal action against Gayoom. Nasheed was forced to resign at gun point in what was for all purposes, a coup.

It is not too far fetched to imagine that last year’s coup against Nasheed and current efforts to neutralise him as a potential presidential candidate through a judicial verdict could well be a conspiracy by Islamists and others to ensure that democracy does not stabilise and terrorists get the required political patronage.

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President appoints new Maldives high commissioner to India

Mohamed Naseer has been appointed as the High Commissioner of Maldives to India.

President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik presented a letter of appointment to Naseer on Sunday (March  10).

Speaking at the presentation, Waheed said he was confident that Naseer would protect and promote the interests of the people Maldives, and work to increase ties between Maldives and India.

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DRP rejects possibility of PPM coalition and “hereditary rule”

The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) has said it will never form a coalition with the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), DRP Leader MP Ahmed Thasmeen Ali told local media.

“PPM left because they couldn’t continue with us. So there are no grounds to form a coalition now is there?” another local media outlet reported Thasmeen as staying.

“Hereditary rule, we cannot support that. So we cannot form a coalition with PPM,” Thasmeen said.

Furthermore, the coalition DRP forms will be subject to who they field as a presidential candidate, Thasmeen explained.

Gayoom formed PPM in 2011 after resigning from the DRP, following a dispute with Thasmeen and the party’s ejection of Umar Naseer.

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President Waheed claims 10,000 members for GIP by March 10

President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has claimed that his Gaumee Ithihaad Party (GIP) will reach 10,000 members by Sunday (March 10).

Speaking to local media, the president claimed that 9,000 members had signed for the party and that extensive campaigning was being carried out in Male’ to increase GIP’s membership.

Despite the president’s claims, the Elections Commission political registry presently shows that his party has only 4,012 registered members, local media reported.

President Waheed told local media that the push to reach 10,000 members was due to the recently passed political party bill, which states that any party with less than 10,000 members could face dissolution.

“I still don’t believe that this is something they [Parliament] should have done. I believe forming clubs, organisations and political parties is a right enshrined in the constitution. That is a fundamental right,” Waheed was told local newspaper Haveeru.

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