India’s diplomatic conundrum in Maldives has compounded after a magistrate’s court issued an arrest warrant against deposed President Mohamed Nasheed who has taken refuge in the Indian high commission in Male. India wants the liberal Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) leader to contest the presidential elections in September.
The Hulhumale magistrate court, which is hearing the case of detention of the chief judge of a Maldivian criminal court by Nasheed’s regime in January last year, issued the warrant on Sunday evening. On Monday afternoon, the Maldivian foreign ministry informed the Indian high commission of the warrant instructing Maldives Police to produce Nasheed before the court on Wednesday. India is yet to react.
“There are clear international conventions that don’t permit such a move,” said a top diplomat. “Anyway we are firm on our stand that the Maldivian election should be inclusive.”
Nasheed took shelter in the high commission last Wednesday fearing arrest in the case which is seen as a ploy to prevent him from running for presidency. Nasheed, who became the first democratically elected President of Maldives in 2008, was ousted in February last year following protests and a police mutiny after the arrest of Judge Abdulla Mohamed who faced allegations of corruption. Nasheed accuses his 2008 coalition partner and vice president Waheed Hassan Manik, who then took over as the President, of being part of the conspiracy to depose him.
The latest warrant comes after Nasheed stayed away from the court proceedings on February 10 and 13. Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) called the warrant “politically motivated”.
The Maldivian police, meanwhile, said they were awaiting the foreign ministry’s response to the warrant.
Nasheed’s lawyer and former minister Hassan Latheef said they were mulling the legal strategy.
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