The Maldives Fisheries and Agriculture Minister Dr. Muhammad Shainee have said that UN Working Group does not have the authority to order Maldives Government to release illegally detained political captives.
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said Mohamed Nazim was not afforded a fair trial following his 2015 arrest on alledged weapons smuggling charges and backed the retired colonel’s assertion that the police had framed him. It also suggested that Nazim’s treatment in prison had violated international prohibitions against torture.
The arrest and jailing of several of Yameen’s political opponents, including former President Mohamed Nasheed, throwing the country into a period of prolonged crisis. The WGAD said the Maldivian authorities had violated the country’s own laws and international conventions it was signatory to in Nazim’s case.
“The rule of law ought not to be confused with the rule by law, the subversion of law as a tool for arbitrary rule by Government in collusion with the judiciary paving the way for the hatred of anyone to lead to deviation from justice,”
President Yameen’s move of illegally detaining political opposition under pretext of fake “Terrorism Act” is now being viewed by UN and across the globe as abuse of powers by current autocratic government to crush any political resistance to allow corrupt government to remain in power. Laws are meant and used to govern the country but President Yameen has started abusing the laws to spread the wings of his dictator-style of governance over democratic nation of Maldives.
