COLOMBO, (Reuters) – The Maldives asked the United Nations yesterday to mediate in a standoff with the opposition over the arrest of a criminal court judge, which has prompted accusations that President Mohamed Nasheed’s government has subverted democracy.
The military’s arrest six days ago of Criminal Court Chief Judge Abdulla Mohamed for corruption set off low-level nightly protests by the opposition coalition allied with Nasheed’s predecessor and archrival, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
Nasheed, a former human rights and democracy campaigner, ended Gayoom’s 30-year reign and ushered in a constitutional reform agenda after winning a 2008 election. It was the first multi-party democratic poll in the history of the former island sultanate, located off India’s southern tip.
One of Nasheed’s main challenges has been in implementing reforms with Gayoom’s allies populating the judiciary and other institutions.
Yesterday, Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem wrote to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights asking for a team of senior foreign jurists to mediate. The United Nations in the Maldives had no immediate comment.
Naseem said the fact the judicial commission had failed to investigate the judge, and others, for more than a year showed cracks in the constitution’s checks and balances.
“This system failure led directly to the president’s decision, as the ultimate guarantor of the constitution and of rule of law in the Maldives, to detain Justice Abdulla Mohamed,” the letter said.
