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Police quiz top MDP lawmaker over Nasheed commutation doc

Mohamed Visham
04 August 2016, MVT 13:07
Hinnavaru MP Ibrahim Mohamed Solih (C) pictured after being questioned by police on Wednesday. MIHAARU PHOTO
Mohamed Visham
04 August 2016, MVT 13:07

Main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) parliamentary group leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih was questioned by the police on Wednesday over the document allegedly transferring former president Mohamed Nasheed to house arrest last July.

Nasheed had been sentenced last March on a terrorism charge over the arrest and subsequent detention of a sitting Judge during his presidency, in a trial widely criticized for lack of due process.

Nasheed was first transferred to house arrest on June 21. The initial three-day period was extended to eight weeks on June 23 shortly after MDP publicly announced it would back a constitutional amendment to allow President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom to replace his deputy.

The MDP then backed the impeachment of Vice President Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, and issued a free whip on a second controversial amendment to the Constitution allowing foreigners to own land in the Maldives.

In July, Nasheed’s lawyers announced the government had commuted his jail term to house arrest. The Maldivian High Commission in Colombo confirmed the move to international news-wire AFP.

The document Nasheed signed was an agreement pledging to abide by the terms of his house arrest. It had a state seal and signature, and is similar to the agreements he had signed on June 21 and 23.

Nasheed has since been granted asylum in the UK after he was allowed to leave for medical treatment in an internationally brokered deal in January.

Solih who has been an eyewitness to when the document was handed to Nasheed told reporters on Wednesday expressed surprise that police were investigating over a year after the incident.

According to the Hinnavaru MP, police have failed to question anyone thus far.

"There are a lot of people suspected of being behind this. Even president Yameen has been linked. But police have never questioned the president over this," Solih said.

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