President Abdulla Yameen has said that the Supreme Court’s order on February 1 was unlawful.

On February 1, the Supreme Court ordered the release of nine political prisoners and the reinstatement of 12 opposition MPs.

Speaking at a ceremony in Sh. Nilandhoo on Tuesday, President Yameen said that the court order was unlawful “from beginning to end.”

The government has since arrested Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and Justice Ali Hameed and ordered the rest of the Supreme Court bench to reverse the order.

However, the order has still not been completely nullified, as the court has still not reversed its order to reinstate the 12 MPs. The MPs have been temporarily barred from attending parliamentary sittings until the Supreme Court makes a clear verdict on their dismissal, and a hearing has been scheduled for Thursday.

Speaking at the ceremony, President Yameen said that he is not the type of person to lock the Supreme Court gate even if it had issued an unlawful ruling.

Chief Justice Saeed and Justice were arrested at around midnight after security forces broke open the door of the Supreme Court building. There were also reports that they had been dragged around the floor during the arrest. The Justices have since been issued numerous charges and have been convicted to prison for being part of a conspiracy to overthrow the government

President Yameen also said that he was pressured by the international community to allow self-exiled former president and opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed to run in September’s presidential election and that the country has felt obstructions due to some claiming that the democracy in Maldives is deteriorating.

He also claimed that some countries have revoked export benefits given to Maldives after his government refused to allow freedom of religion. However, President Yameen did not name any country that had supposedly stopped giving benefit and Maldives has not allowed any other religion to be practiced in the country since embracing Islam in 1153.