Justice & Democracy in the Maldives: 2 years into the imprisonment of the opposition leader.

The essence of democracy lies in the people’s right to access justice while the burden of democracy lies in creating an environment where everyone has an equal ground.

On 28^th November 2019, after a controversial and publicly broadcasted court case the opposition leader and former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom was sentenced to 5 years in prison with a fine of $ 5 million.

Two years later, on 30^th December 2021 the apex court overturned the sentence against opposition leader and Presidential candidate. The historic verdict to overturn the sentence has a long-lasting impact on the history and politics of Maldives, as it ensured the opposition leader a step closer to contesting in the 2023 Presidential election. And as we approach the 2023 Presidential Election, in this report we analyze the status of justice and democracy in the Maldives.

Voice of Dissent Suppressed

In January 2019 the opposition leader was charged with embezzlement over a sum of $1million deposited into his account by a close associate of the disgraced Vice-President Ahmed Adeeb, who was removed from office after being charged with the attempted assassination of President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom. Shortly after the charges were raised, he was arbitrarily detained until the end of the trial. However, he was later released by the High Court of Maldives on 28^th March 2019.

The following Parliamentary Election in 2019 saw the opposition struggling to operate with the freezing of their assets by the state. The release of President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom just a week before the Election resulted in an unprecedented win for the ruling party with the opposition coalition managing to secure just 9 seats within the Parliament.

The handicap was also noted by independent electoral watchdogs who also noted excessive use of state resources by the current administration to lobby for the ruling party.

The key issues surrounding the trial and appeal of former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s case is the politically influenced judicial watchdog, Judicial Service Commission’s (JSC) composition. The JSC currently consist of the Speaker of the Parliament and President of the ruling party former President Mohamed Nasheed, his three long-time attorney’s MP Hisaan Hussain, AG Ibrahim Riffath, Masthoor Husnee and others appointed directly by the Parliament, which is also led by Speaker Mohamed Nasheed.

This political influence over an institution which has the authority to accept and reject cases along with the right to appoint, dismiss and suspend judges has meant that the Judiciary has come under an unprecedented level of political influence.

The trial was also marked with irregularities as the trial judge at the Criminal Court of Maldives was suspended just 4 hours prior to passing a verdict. The suspended judge, Chief Judge of Criminal Court Judge Ahmed Hailam spoke out on 07^th November 2019, stating that he was contacted, threatened and pressured senior executives from the current administration, to pass a guilty verdict against former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.

The trial continued after Judge Ali Rasheed along with 4 other judges were assigned to the case and after just one hearing, the bench moved on to pass a verdict on the case. This is a major red flag as this forgoes several tenets of the judicial process which includes a revision to the pre-trial, evidence hearing and witness cross examination when the trial judge changes.

On 28^th November 2019 former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom as sentenced to 5 years in prison along with a fine of $ 5 million.

While the Judge Ali Rasheed who passed the guilty verdict against the former President has been promoted twice within one year to the Apex court, the irregularities around the trial still persists. This include the state’s primary witnesses, former Vice-President Ahmed Adeeb and his close associate Abdulla Ziyath.

Against a Supreme Court ruling on presenting a testimony of a defendant in a case against or for another defendant in the same case, the state used Ahmed Adeeb and former MMPRC Managing Director Abdulla Ziyath’s testimony.

The two had previously plead guilty to embezzling state funds from the MMPRC, making their testimony inadmissible in court according to the ruling by the Supreme Court of Maldives. However, with Ahmed Adeeb’s attorney Hussain Shameem as the Prosecutor general of Maldives, Adeeb along with Abdulla Ziyath became the state’s primary witness in silencing the opposition through their testimonies, while they enjoyed their sentences from the comfort of their homes.

Even in the presence of all these irregularities, the opposition’s leader and Presidential candidate spent the last 2 years in prison, the longest consecutive time spent in prison by a politician in the Maldives.

While he was released by the Supreme Court of Maldives, he faces more charges raised by the state. The opposition leader was handed a court warrant to impound his passport before he could make his way home after the hearing at the Supreme Court of Maldives. A week later, state prosecutors requested to extend the court order citing “credible” proof that the opposition leader was planning to flee the country. The request was rejected on the grounds that there was no such credible proof that the former President was planning to flee the nation and moreover, he did not even have a valid passport.

Former President Abdulla Yameen currently faces multiple court cases yet the state is yet to provide any credible evidence against the opposition leader, lending credence to the opposition’s claim that their leader was being subjected to political vengeance. While this raises questions on the independence and function of the Prosecutor General on whether he represents the personal attorneys of the ruling coalition leaders, the answer to which was given by the very same people. Going back to the 2018 Presidential Election, current President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and his fellow coalition leaders pledged to “arrest & jail” former Presidnet Abdulla Yameen.

Justice and Democracy.

Access to an impartial judiciary has become a privilege in the Maldives as the senior members of the current administration continue to enjoy impunity. Several high-profile cases of sexual harassment and rape has surfaced with no convictions to those cases. The string of sexual harassment from senior officials of the government and the impunity which follows was displayed when the husband of the Parliament’s Committee on Human Rights and Gender was briefly arrested and released after allegedly attempting to rape a Kenyan woman aboard a sea vessel, forcing the victim to jump overboard.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s lackluster approach to addressing sexual harassment was displayed in its fullest when he refused to take any action against his Communications Director who was accused of harassing a journalist, a case which drew the attention of even the IFJ.

The current ruling party’s stronghold over the executive office and the parliament has meant that they have usurped control of the judiciary, fusing the three powers of the government, disregarding the checks and balances set in place to prevent such a situation.

Moreover, the current administration has not kept up their pledge for judicial reform as the state of the Judiciary is in absolute lunacy. President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s key presidential pledge of reforming the composition of the JSC has been swept under the rug.

Instead of reforming the judiciary, the current administration has adopted and reinforced the ill-practices of their predecessors, further enabled by their absolute control over the parliament. The JSC’s composition still remains the same, but enables more political influence due to the ruling party’s super-majority within the Parliament. This has led to the Speaker of the Parliament and his fellow parliamentarians to appoint and dismiss judges and magistrates as they see fit through the JSC, with no obstructions.

Due to this fusion of powers and the removal of checks and balances, the public has been greatly neglected in their right to access an impartial judiciary and a democratic environment. Without consequence, “I hear you but I don’t care” has become the new MO for the senior officials of the current administration.

The lack of check and balances along with their new MO has resulted in an environment where poor fiscal management, resulting in the nation’s GDP per capita dropping from $10626.43 to $ 7455.86 in just three years. This recession and the ensuing decline in socioeconomic conditions continue to go unaddressed by the senior officials of the government.

It is evident that the current situation in the Maldives does not grant the public access to a functioning and an impartial justice system which has been intruded with political influences, while the voice of dissent has been diminished through intimidation and imprisonment of the opposition’s Presidential candidate. The years of advocacy and reform done by politicians in the Maldives have been largely undone within the span of the past 3 years as the current administration moves into further consolidate the state powers. Democracy has been reset back to its infancy in the Maldives.