No valid reason for military to deploy soldiers inside court premises, says Maumoon Hameed

After a video of military officers entering the Supreme Court emerged online on Saturday, prominent lawyer Maumoon Hameed has said that there “is no valid reason” for this.

In a tweet posted on Sunday, Hameed said that there is “no valid reason for MNDF [Maldives National Defence Force]to deploy soldiers inside court premises”.

Noting that “this can only be seen as a show of force to the judiciary as a whole,” he said that this is more of a “warning” to the remaining justices of the Supreme Court, that “what happened to the Chief Justice could happened to [them]”.

A video obtained by RaajjeTV, taken on Saturday night, shows a number of military officers entering the Supreme Court, via a small gate located on the left side of its main gate, with their vests and batons. RaajjeMV journalists had witnessed this as well.

While a number of officers were seen entering the premises on Saturday, the opposition maintains that the Supreme Court is under military rule.

The political crisis in the Maldives intensified following a ruling issued by the court on 1st February, signed by all five justices, releasing nine political prisoners and reinstating the 12 parliamentarians unseated by the Elections Commission. However, incumbent President Abdulla Yameen refused to enforce the order, and instead declared a 15-day state of emergency across the nation on 5th February. This has since been extended by 30 days.

After declaring a state of emergency, President Yameen sent the military to arrest Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and Justice Ali Hameed. They are to have been pushed down onto the floor by officers, and dragged out of the building.

Since their arrest, the Supreme Court has been issuing rulings, allegedly by the three justices remaining on the bench, despite not having the signatures. They have since annulled a number of points in the ruling issued by the five justices on the 1st of February.