The arrest and the illegal deportation came a day after Maldivian Home Minister Umar Naseer said they were looking for eight suspects in connection with the September 28 blast aboard President Abdulla Yameen’s speed boat.
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Police arrested Vice President Ahmed Adeeb nearly a month later for treason, fuelling fears of fresh political turmoil in the honeymoon islands after a series of sackings of senior government officials.
According to official sources, the emergency was declared after arms and explosives were found in a lorry parked here.
The president said that a lesson learned from the coup attempt was that there were people within and overseas who desire to destroy the peace of the Maldives and the “dangerous attack of the presidential speedboat… was one such act of greed to attain power”.
Attorney General Mohamed Anil said President Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayoom made the decision to safeguard public safety.
President Abdulla Yameen has imposed a 30-day state of emergency across the whole country limiting the constitutional freedoms of locals to meet and travel, and increasing powers of arrest.
The Maldives’ image as a luxury holiday destination has been badly dented by political unrest in recent years.
It was unclear which civilians Anil was referring to. It’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, resigned in 2012 under protests that he and the opposition call a coup.
Tensions are high on the Indian Ocean archipelago, known by many mainly for its relaxing beaches and resorts.
Yameen has used allegations of an assassination plot to order a major shake-up of his security.
The dispute has weakened the government at a time of growing popular anger at the continuing detention of Nasheed and economic problems. Strong concerns about the fairness of the trial have been raised within the global community.
“(As also) Prohibition on the use of confessions and illegal evidence, assistance of legal counsel, prohibition on degrading treatment or torture, humane treatment of arrested or detained persons, retrospective legislation, retention of other rights for non-compliance with unlawful orders”, it added.
“It is good and necessary to have a relaxing holiday but important [they]understand what is happening here too”, he said.
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The MDP rally in the capital Male is aimed at pressuring Yameen to release Nasheed, whose incarceration has been severely criticised by the United Nations and global rights groups.
