Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom will remain steadfast in his reform efforts and will not concede no matter how much he is pressured, the allied opposition parties have said.
The Joint Opposition said in a statement on Monday to mark 120 days since the former strongman’s incarceration, which said to think Maumoon would concede is ‘untrue and ill-informed’.
The parties reiterated their call to have the ‘baseless’ charges against Maumoon dropped and for the ‘arbitrarily’ detained opposition leader to be released.
Further, in this regard the parties defended Maumoon, who is accused of funneling money through public officials in a ‘conspirary to overthrow the government’ since 2013.
The Joint Opposition said that Maumoon had been ‘tirelessly’ campaigning for incumbent President Abdulla Yameen in 2013 and is innocent of the crimes he is accused of.
Maumoon was arrested alongside Surpeme Court justices Abdulla Saeed and Ali Hameed on February 5th, after President Yameen declared a state of emergency in the Maldives.
The trio and several others have implicated in the alleged coup. Maumoon and the Supreme Court justices are facing multiple other charges as well.
Their arrests have been described as further detereoration of democratic principles and part of Maldives backtracking on its developments.
