Police arresting
former President Nasheed today. PHOTO/ MDP
( October 8,
2012, Male, Sri Lanka Guardian) Police have taken former President Mohamed
Nasheed into custody in Gaaf Dhaal Atoll Faresmathoda, after the Hulhumale
Magistrate Court had issued an arrest warrant in his name yesterday.
Latest reports
indicate the Police have now left with Nasheed from the island.
Hulhumale Court
had ordered the Police to produce Nasheed in court by keeping him in custody to
face charges over the arrest and subsequent detention of Chief Criminal Judge
Abdulla Mohamed.
According to
Nasheed's close aide, Aminath Shauna Police had stormed a house the
ex-President had been in without any warning. Shauna further told Haveeru that
MPs Imthiyaz Fahmy and Ilyas Labeeb
along with former Minister Mohamed Aslam were arrested with Nasheed.
However,
opposition Raajje TV reported that Imthiyaz, Labeeb and Aslam had requested to
accompany the ex-President, which had also been confirmed by Police.
The court issued
the order after Nasheed failed to appear for the first hearing of the case
which had been originally scheduled for last Monday and rescheduled again for
yesterday as Nasheed had skipped court and departed on a campaign trip to the
south of the Maldives. After the first scheduled hearing was boycotted by
Nasheed, Hulhumale Court had ordered the Police to produce him in court for
yesterday's hearing. However, Police had stressed that the order had referred
to the Article which did not afford the authority to the Police to produce an
accused in court while in custody and hence cannot be implemented without
Nasheed's consent.
In addition,
High Court had rejected the appeal made by Nasheed of the order by the
Hulhumale Magistrate Court on the Police to produce him in court.
Besides former
President Nasheed, former Defence Minister Tholhath Ibrahim Kaleyfaanu, former
Chief of Defence Force Major General Moosa Ali Jaleel, former Brigadier General
Ibrahim Mohamed Didi and Colonel Mohamed Ziyad are also being charged with the
unconstitutional arrest of Judge Abdulla Mohamed violating Article 81 of the
Penal Code. If found guilty the offence carries a maximum sentence of three
years in jail or exile or a fine not exceeding MVR2,000.
If Nasheed is
convicted and sentenced to a period of more than one year, he would be
disqualified from contesting in the upcoming Presidential election.
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