By Daniel Bosley
MALE, Maldives
Former Maldivian defense minister Tholhath Ibrahim was last week sentenced to 10 years in jail in relation to the detention of a Criminal Court judge in 2012.
The week before, MP and former deputy speaker in the Majlis, the Maldivian parliament, Mohamed Nazim was handed a 25-year jail term on corruption charges first filed in 2009.
Both Tholhath and MP Nazim joined former President Mohamed Nasheed and recently dismissed defense minister Colonel Mohamed Nazim behind bars - both of whom recently received sentences of unprecedented length.
Posters calling for the release of the jailed men have now been pasted over the remaining relics of previous elections – scant reminder of the island nation’s fervent embrace of democracy since 2008.
Towering above the main thoroughfare of the densely crowded capital, Male, the faces of Nasheed and Colonel Nazim gaze. “Tomorrow, who?” reads the caption beneath.
Invisible to the million plus tourists who visit the country’s many luxury resorts each year, the chaotic politics of paradise look set to increase instability as perceived opponents of the government are targeted by the authorities.
After an estimated 10,000 people marched through the crowded streets of Male on February 27, opponents of the government continue to resist a return to the authoritarian rule they hoped had left the islands forever.
“Maldivians will not tolerate return of an authoritarian regime,” explained former Maldivian Democratic Party Youth Wing President Shauna Aminath.
“We will continue to hold the government accountable and ensure the government respects our dreams to make better Maldives. The Maldivian judiciary is a barrier to democracy - it is corrupt, politicized and under qualified to consolidate democracy in the Maldives.”
The mighty fall
With the U.N. among many condemning Nasheed’s trial as “hasty” and "apparently unfair," the former president will have begun his 13-year sentence rueing his inability to reform the judiciary after becoming the country’s first democratically-elected president seven years ago.
Nasheed’s antagonism to the current government is clear, maintaining that actors loyal to the former 30-year dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom forced him from power illegally on Feb. 7 2012.
Less clear are the reasons for the downfall of the two Nazim’s, both of whom had previously enjoyed influential positions within the government.
The retired colonel - a civilian on the morning of February 7, 2012 - took his place in the cabinet just hours after being filmed directing mutinous troops while Nasheed desperately attempted to cling to power.
However, after a late night raid of the colonel’s home in January this year, authorities claimed to have found a pistol and an explosive device alongside detailed plans to harm both President Yameen Abdul Gayoom -- Maumoon’s half-brother -- and his right-hand man Ahmed Adeeb, who heads the country’s billion dollar tourism industry.
The former defense minister -- given an 11-year term on March 27 -- was viewed by many as a likely challenger to Yameen in the 2018 presidential election.
More importantly, both he and his namesake appear to have made the mistake of crossing the powerful tourism minister, with Colonel Nazim’s legal team alleging that Adeeb had framed his former colleague.
Last November, Adeeb accused the Dhiggaru MP of attempting to implicate him in a multi-million dollar corruption scandal as well with as the suspicious disappearance of local journalist Ahmed Rilwan, missing since August 8.
Opposition grows
Opposition to the government’s tactics has continued to grow, beginning with the union of Nasheed’s MDP with the formerly government-aligned Jumhooree Party (JP) in early February -- just weeks before Nasheed was arrested on the new terror charges.
The pair’s agreement to defend the Constitution followed the arbitrary removal of two of the Supreme Court’s seven judges in December.
After an unexpected $100 million tax bill for the JP’s leader Gasim in March, the government has again been accused of targeting his significant business interests.
Meanwhile, the religious conservative Adhaalath Party has called for an “end to all this brutality within the boundaries of Islamic Sharia, the constitution and laws of the Maldives,” accusing the government of “leading the way for gangsters and people who commit serious crimes.”
The well-documented use of local gangs for political purposes has again led to accusations against the tourism minister. Adeeb is regularly pictured with gang leaders who make no secret of having his protection.
The failure of the country’s criminal justice system to curb street violence in the capital has resulted in a recent rise in murders and stabbings – crimes almost unheard of in the archipelago just a decade ago. Curfews on business hours were reintroduced late last month, having been first brought in after a similar spate of attacks in 2012.
Judiciary unreformed
Following his incarceration, the office of former President Nasheed reiterated previous suggestions that the detained judge was suspected of releasing a murder suspect who subsequently killed 21-year-old in an alleged contract assassination.
However, it is the long term effects of the unreformed judiciary -- hand-reared under the Gayoom dictatorship -- that have become evident after the election of his half-brother in later 2013.
After being criticised heavily for its interference in the 2013 presidential election - including the annulment of a first round lauded as free and fair by international observers - the Supreme Court has used unprecedented ‘suo moto’ proceedings against both the Elections Commission and the Human Rights Commission in the past year.
Acting as both plaintiff and judge in the cases, the court dismissed the senior leadership of the elections commission less than one month before the Majlis elections last year, while the human rights watchdog still faces charges of undermining country’s sovereignty as a result of a report submitted to the U.N.
Having produced a 2013 report urging judicial reform in the Maldives, U.N. special rapporteur on independence of judges and lawyers Gabriela Knaul has reacted to Nasheed’s trial by expressing concern at the “seriously deteriorating situation in the independence of the justice system.”
Despite the repeated calls to bring the courts in line with the country’s new constitution, the government continues to bridle at any criticism of recent verdicts.
“[W]hen it’s the Maldives, because we are a small country, [they] want to meddle in everything we do. No. That day is in the past. The Maldives, this Maldivian state, will no longer give room for that,” President Yameen told his supporters last month.
With the government appearing unwilling to allow room for any internal dissent, the contrast between the country’s paradise image and its political reality looks set to grow.
A second mass rally by the opposition on May 1st means more room is likely to be needed in Maafushi island jail.
