Day: May 14, 2015

Opposition leaders welcome president’s call for talks

The three opposition parties have welcomed President Abdulla Yameen’s call for talks, but some have called for the release of imprisoned leaders ahead of negotiations.

Jumhooree Party leader Gasim Ibrahim in a tweet said his party is ready to commence talks with the government, while Adhaalath Party spokesperson Ali Zahir said the religious conservative party will always heed calls for negotiations called for in good faith.

Welcoming the president’s call, the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) vice president Mohamed Shifaz insisted the party’s imprisoned leadership – ex-president Mohamed Nasheed and party chairperson Ali Waheed – must be able to sit at the table.

“We are ready to talk with President Yameen. These are discussions with President Yameen. Our leadership will participate on our behalf,” he said.

The Adhaalath Party has also said its detained leader, Sheikh Imran Abdulla, will represent the party in any official talks.

The religious conservative party called on the government to “create an atmosphere conducive to dialogue” by releasing Imran and other protesters arrested from the May Day anti-government demonstration.

President Yameen’s appeal comes amidst growing international pressure to release ex-president Mohamed Nasheed and ex-defence Minister Mohamed Nazim.

The JP, the Adhaalath Party and the MDP formed a coalition in March and continued daily protests over what they called the government’s attempt to silence the opposition.

The Maldivians against tyranny coalition have previously called for negotiations and demanded the government release Nasheed and Nazim. However, president Yameen maintains the pair were tried through independent courts, and says he cannot meet the opposition’s demands.

The president’s office spokesperson Ibrahim Muaz Ali told Minivan News that the government’s stance has not changed, and the president can only negotiate over lawful demands.

Nasheed and Nazim must appeal their respective convictions on terrorism and weapons smuggling, he said.

Meanwhile, MDP parliamentary group leader Ibrahim ‘Ibu’ Mohamed Solih told local newspaper Avas that the opposition coalition’s steering committee will discuss the president’s offer before making a comment.

The opposition held a 20,000-strong march in Malé on May Day after labelling President Yameen’s overtures at talks “insincere.” The president had appointed tourism minister Ahmed Adeeb as his representative for talks, but the opposition says they will only sit with the president himself.

They’ve also accused Adeeb of corruption and illicit connections with gangs, a claim the tourism minister has denied.

Nearly 200 people were arrested at the May Day protest and hundreds were injured in a police crackdown. Police used tear gas, stun grenades, pepper spray and baton charges to disperse protesters when they attempted to enter Malé’s restricted Republic Square.

MDP’s chairperson Ali Waheed, Sheikh Imran and JP deputy leader Ameen Ibrahim were arrested and remanded for 15 days.

The high court released Ameen today, but upheld the remand detention of Waheed and Imran.

Meanwhile, the criminal court has reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Gasim over the police’s claim he had funded the May Day protests. The JP leader is in Thailand at present.

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High Court upholds detention of MDP chairperson, Adhaalath Party leader

The High Court has upheld the criminal court’s order to hold Adhaalath Party leader Sheikh Imran Abdulla and main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party chairperson Ali Waheed in remand detention for 15 days.

However, the appellate court has released Jumhooree Party deputy leader Ameen Ibrahim from police custody, overturning the criminal court’s 15-day remand order.

The three leaders of the allied opposition parties were arrested from their homes with court warrants on the night of May 1. All three subsequently filed appeals at the high court challenging the legality of the criminal court’s remand detention orders.

The arrests followed a crackdown on the May Day anti-government demonstration. Nearly 200 people were arrested after protesters clashed with riot police.

The opposition leaders were accused of inciting violence against the government and threatening police in their speeches on May 1, which police contend led to protesters assaulting police officers, damaging property, and disrupting public order and safety.

The High Court noted in the verdict in Ameen’s case that according to police an intelligence report and an audio recording of Ameen’s speech as evidence to the criminal court.

The criminal court judge accepted the report but did not accept the CD with the recording. Police had said at the appeal hearing that the report did not have a verbatim transcript of Ameen’s speech.

The criminal court judge had not determined whether Ameen had incited violence and encourage criminal offences before deciding that he posed a danger to society, the three-judge panel of the High Court ruled unanimously.

In Ali Waheed and Imran’s cases, the High Court ruled that the criminal court order was lawful. The judges dismissed procedural issues raised in the appeal and noted that police do not have to submit enough evidence to prove guilt to be granted a request for extension of detention.

However, in Ali Waheed’s case, judge Ezmirelda Zahir issued a dissenting opinion, while judges Ali Sameer and Abdulla Hameed issued the majority opinion to uphold the lower court order.

Waheed saying that protesters must go home after freeing imprisoned ex-president Mohamed Nasheed was not sufficient to determine that he threatened police or posed a danger to society, Zahir noted in her dissenting ruling.

All three were members of the opposition ‘Maldivians against tyranny’ alliance’s steering committee, which organised the protest.

Journalists were not allowed to observe the appeal hearings under a new rule that bars media from appeals of detention orders.

The criminal court has meanwhile issued an arrest warrant for JP leader Gasim Ibrahim, who is currently out of the country. The business tycoon is accused of funding the May Day demonstration.

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LGA suspends seven councilors over May Day protest

The Local Government Authority (LGA) has suspended seven councilors who took part in an anti-government demonstration on May 1.

All seven had been arrested in a police crackdown after protesters attempted to enter Malé’s restricted Republic Square. They were suspended for two months, local media reports.

Councilors are elected for island and atoll councils for three years. There are over 1000 councilors in the Maldives.

According to the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), some 300 of its 450 island and atoll council members had taken part in the protest. Some 7000 people had traveled to Malé from Maldives’ remote islands for May Day, the opposition has claimed.

Nearly 20,000 protesters took part in the May Day march and demanded the release of imprisoned ex-president Mohamed Nasheed and ex-defence minister Mohamed Nazim.

Home minister and president of the LGA, Umar Naseer, has also asked the anti-corruption watchdog to penalize any councilors who had traveled to the capital on state funds.

According to the opposition coalition, 12 employees of the state were dismissed for participating in the protest.

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Police place further restrictions on opposition protests

The police have banned the use of four-wheeled vehicles in the opposition’s protests without prior permission, prompting concern over “unlawful restrictions” on freedom of assembly.

The police last week said the opposition must obtain prior permission before holding a protest despite a constitutional provision stating no prior notice is needed for demonstrations. Since a mass anti-government protest on May 1, the police have stopped any attempt at street protests by briefly detaining key figures.

In a statement yesterday, the police said the permission to use four-wheeled vehicles was set because a lorry drove at high speed into police lines on May 1 and injured police officers. The step is required for public safety and protection of private property, the police said.

The opposition frequently uses lorries at protests to hold speaker systems, and to publicly announce the opposition activities during the day. The police have previously banned the use of megaphones or speaker systems beyond 11pm.

Some 20,000 people took to the streets of Malé on May Day, after three months of daily protests over the imprisonment of ex-president Mohamed Nasheed and ex-defence minister Mohamed Nazim. The protest was organised by the Maldivians against tyranny coalition – consisting of the Adhaalath Party, the Jumhooree Party and the Maldivian Democratic Party.

Police officers used tear gas, pepper spray, baton charges and stun grenades to break up protests when protesters attempted to enter Malé’s restricted Republic Square. Nearly 200 protesters were arrested and scores were injured, including two police officers.

Speaking to Minivan News, MDP vice president Mohamed Shifaz, said the police have no authority to place restrictions on freedom of assembly.

“The police do not have the right to ask us to obtain such permissions, we will continue to exercise our rights to the fullest extent guaranteed to us by the constitution,” he said.

If a police officer is injured, the police must investigate the case, but cannot restrict the use of vehicles, he said. The police arrested the driver of the lorry used in the May Day protest. The MDP says he was severely beaten.

Shifaz also pointed out Specialist Operations (SO) officers often drive lorries at high speed at crowd of protesters to disperse them.

“The police lorry also drove in to the large crowd of people as well, the chaotic situation on May 1 was created by the police’s pre-planned decision to stop the rally at any cost. They had a zero tolerance policy,” said Shifaz.

The opposition does not condone or encourage violence, he said, adding police chief Hussein Waheed is running the police force like a political party.

However, a police media official said that the constitution does not prohibit the protection of the public. “The law does not obstruct us from protecting the citizens, these are measures we are jurisdictionally allowed to take, but we just have not taken them before,” he said.

He said the police are allowed to drive at high speed, but said the police tactics are different to that of the opposition.

“Sometimes we have to go at high speed, like we did on May 1. That does not compare to the MDP driving past an area declared beyond use by the police, which harmed some of our officers,” he said.

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President appeals for talks, no apparent change in terms

President Abdulla Yameen has called on the opposition to begin talks for the “stability and the benefit of Maldivian citizens,” but the president’s office says discussions can only be held on “lawful demands.”

The Maldives has been gripped by political turmoil over the imprisonment of ex-president Mohamed Nasheed and former defence minister Mohamed Nazim.

The president has previously described the allied opposition parties’ demands for the pair’s release as unlawful, saying they must appeal their sentences at the high court.

President Yameen stresses he has no role in Nasheed and Nazim’s incarceration, insisting charges were raised by the independent prosecutor general’s office and tried in independent courts.

Speaking to Minivan News today, the president’s office Spokesperson Ibrahim Muaz Ali said the government’s stance “has not changed,” stating: “There are boundaries and limits to everything, and in this case it is the law.”

President Yameen’s earlier refusal to substantially engage with the opposition had resulted in a 20,000-strong march in Malé on May 1. Nearly 200 people were arrested and hundreds were injured in clashes.

The leaders of the Maldivian Democratic Party, the Adhaalath Party and the Jumhooree Party were arrested shortly afterwards, and remanded for 15 days.

When asked if the president’s office was ruling out negotiations on Nasheed and Nazim’s release, Muaz said the government has not set an agenda or a representative for negotiations, but reiterated that talks can only proceed on “demands the president can meet.”

He once again said the pair must appeal their sentences, and said the president was merely repeating an earlier appeal for talks.

The opposition has previously accused the government of insincerity in overtures for talks, especially after President Yameen appointed tourism minister Ahmed Adeeb as his representative. The opposition had accused Adeeb of corruption and illicit connections with gangs and had insisted President Yameen himself must sit down with them.

Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in jail on terrorism and Nazim was sentenced to 11 years on weapons smuggling charges. The trials have been condemned by foreign governments and international bodies including the UN for apparent lack of due process.

Nazim has filed an appeal, but Nasheed was unable to as the criminal court failed to provide required documents within the ten day appeal period, shortened by the Supreme Court a month before his arrest.

The government, however, maintains Nasheed can still appeal, but his lawyers say the Supreme Court’s new regulations are silent on late appeals.

The apex court had struck down an earlier provision giving judges the discretion to accept late appeals in the same ruling that shortened the 90-day appeal period to ten days.

Nasheed’s family has now asked the UN working group on arbitrary detention to rule his imprisonment as illegal and arbitrary.

The allied opposition parties are also calling on the government “to stop targeting” Jumhooree Party leader Gasim Ibrahim’s businesses. The tourism ministry in February slapped a US$90.4 million fine on Gasim’s Villa group, which the company insists is unlawful.

The central bank yesterday froze the bank accounts of several of Villa group’s subsidiary companies.

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Court issues arrest warrant for Gasim

The criminal court has reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Jumhooree Party (JP) leader Gasim Ibrahim.

Local media reported last night that police had sought the warrant to arrest the business tycoon over allegations of funding the May Day anti-government mass rally.

The opposition MP and chairman of Villa Group is currently out of the country.

A police media official told Minivan News that police could not reveal information on arrest warrants for specific individuals.

“But we are seeking arrest warrants related to the May Day protest,” the official said.

Nearly 200 protesters were arrested from the 20,000-strong demonstration on May 1, including main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) chairperson Ali Waheed, Adhaalath Party leader Sheikh Imran Abdulla, and JP deputy leader Ameen Ibrahim.

The arrest warrant follows the tax authority freezing the bank accounts of several companies owned by Gasim over allegedly unpaid rent and fines. The government has, however, denied the opposition’s claim of unfairly targeting Gasim’s business interests.

A day before the May Day rally, tourism minister Ahmed Adeeb accused Gasim of funding the protest “while hiding in Bangkok” and hiring Sheikh Imran under “a contract” to topple the government.

Gasim promptly denied the allegation in a tweet. He had reportedly traveled to Thailand ahead of the protest.

Imran and the other leaders of the allied opposition parties are being held in remand detention for 15 days. They are accused of inciting violence against the government during the May Day rally.

On May 1, opposition protesters called for the release of imprisoned ex-president Mohamed Nasheed and ex-defence minister Mohamed Nazim.

JP spokesperson Ali Solih told Minivan News that the party has not been able to confirm if the warrant has been issued, but “we can’t say it won’t happen under the present circumstances.”

Solih accused the government of attempts to “intimidate” political opponents and “create fear among the public.”

He noted that Gasim’s support was crucial for president Abdulla Yameen’s victory in the 2013 presidential election.

“Is this is the reward for all the work Gasim did to bring this government?” he asked.

Following a fact finding mission last month, Amnesty International expressed concern with the “rapidly deteriorating” human rights situation in the Maldives.

“There’s a climate of fear spreading in the Maldives, as safeguards on human rights are increasingly eroded. The authorities have a growing track record of silencing critical voices by any means necessary – be it through the police, the judicial system, or outright threats and harassment,” Amnesty’s Maldives researcher Abbas Faiz told the press in New Delhi.

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