The former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, was detained on Monday for failing to turn up for a court hearing in a case involving the unlawful arrest of a High Court judge when Mr. Nasheed was president.
Mr. Nasheed was arrested by the police while on a campaign stop in Fares-Maathodaa island, one of the 1,200 islands that make up the tiny Indian Ocean nation of the Maldives, ahead of the presidential elections in July next year.
While there's little argument that the police took Mr. Nasheed into custody, there's plenty of disagreement concerning the manner in which it took place.
Mr. Nasheed's supporters said he had just eaten breakfast at a party member's home when masked police broke into the house armed in full riot gear, spewing obscenities, and swept the former president out in what his supporters contend was a politically motivated move solely aimed at stopping him from campaigning.
Maldivian Democratic Party workers said that former ministers and aides in Mr. Nasheed's government who were in the house were pepper-sprayed and violently dragged out.
“You could only see their eyes,†said Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, the spokesman for Mr. Nasheed's party, describing the police who he said had burst in to brutally arrest their party leader. “They wanted to make it look like they were catching a fugitive.â€
The police and a spokesman at President Mohammed Waheed Hassan's office offer a far less diabolical account. Yes, the police were dressed in riot gear to protect themselves in case the situation got out of control, they said. But they didn't use force or expletives, they said, and they certainly didn't use tear gas or pepper spray.
A police spokesman, Hassan Haneef, said the police had received a court order Sunday to produce Mr. Nasheed at the court hearing on Tuesday, which will question his order to the army t o arrest a senior judge, Abdulla Mohamed, who he contended was corrupt. Critics said the move was an unconstitutional overreach of Mr. Nasheed's authority.
Mr. Haneef acknowledged that Mr. Nasheed had been cooperative when he was taken into custody.
Masood Imad, media secretary at the president's office, said Mr. Nasheed had ignored the first two court summons for the hearing. Then, according to the law, the court ordered the police to bring him to the hearing, or else the police would have been held in contempt of the court.
Mr. Imad said that the police had acted professionally when they brought Mr. Nasheed into custody.
“He's not been brought in like a criminal,†said Mr. Imad. “He wasn't even handcuffed.â€
He said Mr. Nasheed was taken to the capital, Male, in a very large, comfortable police speedboat, “with seats like an aircraft's.†In addition, he said, the police stopped at an island along the way so Mr. Nasheed could buy the brand of cigarettes he wanted.
The allegations between the two groups echoed the accusations that have been volleyed since Mr. Nasheed resigned from office in what he said was a coup in February. The archipelago nation, which became a democracy as recently as 2008, has been in political turmoil since Mr. Nasheed stepped down. Scores of protesters were arrested in July, the most recent of violent demonstrations that have wracked the country since the change of president.
Mr. Nasheed is now campaigning in the hope of coming to power in the next election and changing Mr. Waheed's government, which he said is illegitimate.
Mr. Ghafoor of the Maldivian Democratic Party said that the former president's arrest came while about 300 party members and supporters had been traveling on five boats and campaigning door to door. He said it was on their stop at the 17th island on Monday at 9:45 a.m. when the police kicked down the door to the house of the former housing a nd environment minister, Mohamed Aslam, where Mr. Nasheed had stopped by.
“They pushed their way in, hurting anyone inside the house,†said Saleema Mohamed, a participant of the campaign trip, who was inside the living room when the police entered the house, according to a statement. “Minister Aslam asked them repeatedly to calm down and to not hurt anyone. He was saying, ‘This is my house.' The police shoved him and pushed him, and he fell on the glass table and broke the table.â€
Mr. Nasheed is scheduled to appear in court at 4 p.m. Tuesday. After the hearing, Mr. Nasheed would be allowed to leave unless the court orders that he be further detained, Mr. Imad said.
