Raajje News Blog

#Maldives: Corruption in governments lives on long after the corrupt leader is removed from office. Such is the state of Maldives, after its liberation on February 7th, 2012 from the corrupt administration led by former President Mohamed Nasheed. Even after the national liberation movement that removed the corrupt leader from office, powerful networks of loyalists are left in place that attempt to strangle the resurgence of the independent sovereign state. Eight months after Nasheed's resignation from office, Maldives is still struggling to rehabilitate the fledgling democracy that he raped together with his money hungry partners. The corrupt leader rules through outright bribery, graft and corruption on a far larger scale than comprehensible to the ordinary citizen. The beneficiaries of the corrupt leader's largesse range from multinationals, rich playboys, international networks promoting private agendas, local businesses, party activists, drug dealers and local gangs. Such...

#Maldives: Days before ex-President Nasheed's trial for human rights abuse, international media and countries have stepped up efforts to assist Nasheed to block the trial. While international media such as AFP have reported the trial as a politically motivated, it is in fact a criminal case brought by the country's first independent Prosecutor General Ahmed Muizzu, for violation of human rights in the military arrest of the Chief Judge of the Criminal Court in January this year. The Prosecutor General's case is built upon an independent investigation by the country's Human Rights Commission, an independent institution headed by a 5 member panel appointed by the Parliament. The current Human Rights Commission consists of 5 members nominated to the Parliament by Nasheed himself.  The Report of the HRCM on the investigation of the Judge's arrest and subsequent solitary confinement at a military training camp for 22 days determined the said actions to be blatant ...

Male', Maldives. Last night, ex-President Nasheed again called upon his party, the Maldivian Democratic Party, to assist him to immediately remove President Mohamed Waheed and reinstate him. The MDP cannot sit around with folded arms, but must take action to remove President Waheed from office, Nasheed told party members gathered at a rally in Male' last night. These statements come in the midst of international reports which say that Nasheed has agreed with foreign envoys such as US Special Envoy Robert Blake to join a unity government and work for reform leading to an election in 2013. However, neither Nasheed nor MDP have confirmed such a commitment. The international community which collectively expressed support for the new regime earlier in the week have modified its stance after Britain and Germany supported Nasheed's allegations of a forced resignation by a military coup. The international community now collectively call for an independent investigation into t...

Male', Maldives. President Nasheed now contends that the Judiciary is unconstitutional, alleging that Judges were not appointed as provided in Sections 285 and 149 of the Constitution. However, President Nasheed's so called legal argument against the constitutionality of Judges of the lower court, in reality has no legal leg to stand upon. In actual fact, a close look at the Constitution shows that it is Nasheed's position as President which is unconstitutional. It reveals that Nasheed, the Parliament and Local Council were elected in elections which violated specific sections in the Constitution. The Constitution specifically states that the first presidential elections to be held under the new Constitution shall be held before 10 October 2008 (Section 301). Further, Section 110 stipulates that elections for the office of President shall be held within one hundred and twenty days (120) to thirty (30) days prior to the expiry of the existing presidential term. Althoug...

Male', Maldives. President Nasheed’s continued interference with the Judiciary created a wealth of opportunities for the opposition. However, for many reasons, not least one of which is interparty rivalry, the opposition has not been able to capitalize on these until a few days ago, when popular activist Umar Naseer joined the protest. Umar Naseer entered the fray a few days ago, turning around flagging civic protests with drive, injection of new activists and proper organization. Umar Naseer is the country’s foremost activist against the Nasheed regime, leading street protests against President Nasheed even as Nasheed took oath of office. This was a long time before other political parties took opposing stands. Umar Naseer has rejuvenated the current seemingly aimless civic protests with concrete demands and brought a measure of organization to the protests. One of the most popular opposition politicians today, Umar Naseer has increased participation at the nightly protests w...

Male', Maldives. Maldives Military wore black face masks to conceal their identity as they stormed the site of another civic protest against the military's forced disappearance of Judge Abdulla Mohamed. In doing so, the military obstructs justice and accountability by preventing the persons harmed and others from enforcing their constitutional right to hold military officers accountable for their actions. In the international scene, it is common to see Israeli security forces don face masks and this too, only when attacking innocent Palestinians. Hence, it is rather disturbing to see the Maldivian military dodging accountability and justice by wearing identity concealing masks when confronting civilians. The disturbing incident adds to the growing lengthy list of violations of fundamental constitutional rights by President Nasheed's military, police, administration and party. The wearing of face masks by protestors is banned in several countries. The issue is relate...

Male', Maldives President Nasheed's is still unable to provide Maldivians with a legally valid defense of his unconstitutional arrest of Judge Abdulla Mohamed, nine days after the act. All Nasheed and his mlilitant party Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) are doing day and night, publicly, privately and on social networks, is to repeat their old accusations of ex-President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom being a dictator and calling for his arrest. At the same time, the civic coalition movement and opposition parties appear to be reveling in their media exposure, but show no sign of moving towards concrete steps to resolve the constitutional crisis. Nasheed's military arrest of Judge Abdulla, a senior judge of the Criminal Court, had been condemned as unconstitutional by the courts, the Chief Justice, Prosecutor General Ahmed Muizzu, Maldives Human Rights Commission, Maldives Lawyers Association and top legal experts in the country. Its unconstitutionality cannot be refuted. Yet, Nash...

Male', Maldives. The Judicial Services Commission today condemned the military arrest of Senior Judge of the Criminal Court Judge Abdulla Mohamed as unconstitutional. In a press release today, the JSC stated that Section 159 of the Constitution clearly gives the mandate to investigate complaints about the Judiciary, and to take disciplinary action against them, including recommendations for dismissal. The JSC made this statement as civilians protest against the unconstitutional arrest of Judge Abdulla for the 8th night in a row. Opposition leaders have stated that they will not stop the protests until Judge Abdulla is released and the Executive brought into the bounds of rule of law. The protests have led to a number of documented incidences of police and army brutality and excessive use of force against civilians, especially women. The JSC's statement repeats charges against the Executive made by Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz and by Prosecutor General Ahmed Muizzu, that the mi...