Maldives high court annuls order to release political prisoners hours after justices arrested News
Maldives high court annuls order to release political prisoners hours after justices arrested

Three justices of the Maldives Supreme Court [official website] on Tuesday annulled [order, PDF] a controversial ruling [text] the court had issued last Thursday that required the government to immediately release a number of political prisoners.

The reversal came a few hours after government forces arrested [press release] the two other justices of the Supreme Court, including the chief justice, on corruption charges.

The order to release the prisoners sparked a political crisis [JURIST report] over the weekend as protests erupted throughout the country’s capital, Male, urging the government to comply with the order and leading President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom [official profile] to declare [press release] a 15-day state of emergency.

The small ocean archipelago country has recently assumed a larger geopolitical role, as China has increased its political and economic ties with the country as part of its “String of Pearls” strategy aimed at the creation of a port network in the Indian Ocean. As such, the Chinese have cautioned against [press release] the use of international force to address the political crisis. However, former President Mohammed Nasheed, currently exiled in Sri Lanka, has publicly requested [tweet] India send a military convoy in order to free the detained judges and political leaders. On Wednesday the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website] called [press release] the recent actions by Yameen “an all-out assault on democracy.”

Yameen was elected in 2013 and is up for election this year, but remains virtually unopposed as his political opponents have all been jailed or exiled.

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