President Abdulla Yameen is a dictator like any other who rules by fear, intimidation, harassment, and nothing should surprise anyone about what he would do to hold on to power, said human rights lawyer Jared Genser.

Genser, who is a counsel of former President Mohamed Nasheed, said this in an exclusive interview with RaajjeTV aired on Wednesday night, after being asked if he would ever imagine the political turmoil in the Maldives reaching a point where President Yameen would arrest his own brother, former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

Genser also suggested that President Yameen might be worried about seeing Nasheed and Maumoon working together to restore democracy to the Maldives, comparing it to Nelson Mandela working with the apartheid government to restore democracy to South Africa.

Speaking on the recent decision by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee to call on the Maldives government to allow Nasheed to run for presidency in this year’s election, Genser said it was the only way to send a message to President Yameen and his ‘cronies’ that the international community will not accept his flagrant violation of international law.

He said that governments around the world, the United Nations, and others in the international community need to impose sanctions against business owners supporting President Yameen, pro-government media outlets, and the state-run media, as well as gross human rights abusers and those stealing money from the Maldivian people

“There needs to be serious cost imposed on him and on his family and on anyone around him that are trying to excuse, justify or otherwise minimize the serious abuses of human rights against the Maldivian people.”

He also said that the UN Human Rights Committee’s decision to find his sentence arbitrary under international law is consistent with a prior decision from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, meaning that this decision must be implemented by the Maldives government.

“Of course, President Yameen, I would imagine, has no interest in abiding by this decision and I’m sure the government will reject it and refuse to abide by it. But ultimately what this makes clear is if the government of the Maldives does not requalify president Nasheed and let him run for president, that there is nobody in the international community who can agree that any sort of election conducted without his participation would be free, fair or credible.”