Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed arrested

Mangalore Today News Network

Male, March 5, 2013: Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed has been arrested from his residence in Male’. The arrest comes after a lower court issued a third arrest warrant against him.

Mr Nasheed faces charges of illegally ordering the military to detain Chief Criminal Judge Abdulla Mohamed when he was in power in January 2012.

"A large number of policemen arrested him in (the capital) Male a short while ago," spokesman Shauna Aminath told AFP by telephone.

If convicted, Mr Nasheed will be barred from the country’s September Presidential polls. His party insists it’s a politically motivated case to ensure he doesn’t contest.

Mr Nasheed had evaded the previous two arrest warrants by seeking diplomatic shelter in the Indian Mission. He took shelter in the Indian Mission on February 13 and left the mission last Friday after spending 11 days there.

He earlier told NDTV that the lower court is unconstitutional and India should intervene if he is convicted. "If I face arrest again, I hope India and the international community will intervene more robustly and make sure things remain on track," he had said on Saturday.

Mr Nasheed, the Maldives’ first democratically elected leader, left office last year in contested circumstances. The former President says he was forced from power at gunpoint after opposition protests and a police mutiny. A national commission last August said the toppling of his government was not a coup, but a transfer of power that followed the constitution, a ruling that triggered several days of demonstrations.