MALE, Maldives — The exiled former leader of the Maldives said he will mount a fresh challenge for the presidency this year after his conviction for abducting a judge was overturned by the country’s Supreme Court. Government opponents in the archipelago nation’s capital mounted a second straight night of street protests demanding the release of political prisoners whose convictions were also overturned.
President Yameen Abdul Gayoom had been set to run for re-election this year virtually unopposed, with all opponents jailed or exiled.
But ex-President Mohammed Nasheed told The Associated Press in an interview Friday that the court’s ruling means he will be eligible to challenge Yameen, who has rolled back many democratic reforms since coming to power five years ago.
“I can contest and I will contest and hopefully we will win it again,” Nasheed said from Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo.
Nasheed was jailed in 2015 but received asylum in Britain later that year after traveling there on medical leave from prison. He has lived in exile ever since.
Nasheed also called for reforms in the country’s security services, telling the AP that “a small element within the military and police want to prop up the dictatorship” of Yameen.
Thursday night’s court ruling ordered the release and retrial of politicians opposed to Gayoom, saying their guilty verdicts were politically influenced. It was not immediately clear how retrials would affect the upcoming elections, but the opposition alliance declared that the ruling “effectively ends President Yameen’s authoritarian rule.”
Protesters late Friday and early Saturday converged on a prison in the capital of Male where the politicians are being held, demanding their immediate release, but police forced them to leave. They then moved to another location for a sit-in protest that was also broken up. Journalists were kept away from both events by police.
The demonstrations marked the second night of protests in the Maldives. After the court’s ruling was made public, street celebrations by government opponents transformed into three hours of clashes with police, who used tear gas and their batons to break up the gatherings.
Maldives Attorney General Mohamed Anil said he raised government concerns about the ruling with the court’s chief justice because the imprisoned politicians were convicted of offenses including terrorism, corruption, embezzlement and treason, said a government statement Friday.
“The attorney general stated that the administration has highlighted concerns over the consequences that may be presented in the immediate implementation of the court’s ruling,” the statement said.
The prosecutor general is examining cases to determine how best to comply with the ruling, the statement added.
The country’s opposition alliance expressed fears that the non-implementation of the court order “could escalate to unrest and incite violence across the country.” It called on the U.N., the European Union and neighboring countries to impress upon the government and security services to respect the Supreme Court ruling.
