Maldives sacks vice-president for ‘treason’

The Maldives parliament said Wednesday it has sacked the country’s vice-president and accused him of treason, as international concern mounts over the state of democracy on the honeymoon islands.

Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday evening to oust Mohamed Jameel, who was the running mate of President Abdulla Yameen in a controversial 2013 election but has now fallen out with him.

The 45-year-old, who was abroad at the time of the vote, was also accused of colluding with the opposition, although the precise nature of the charge remains unclear.

Yameen, the half-brother of former Maldivian strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who ruled for three decades until 2008, already faces international criticism for jailing opposition leader and former president Mohamed Nasheed for 13 years on charges of terrorism in March.

In June Nasheed was moved to house arrest to undergo medical treatment.

The United Nations said the trial of Nasheed, the country’s first democratically elected leader, was “vastly unfair”, while US Secretary of State John Kerry warned that democracy was under threat.

Yameen and Jameel have been at loggerheads in recent months although both had worked together to defeat Nasheed. Jameel accused the president of sidelining him about four months after his November 2013 election.

The sacked vice-president, who was not allowed legal representation, said Yameen was undermining the rule of law.

“This is a testament to the state of the rule of law in the Maldives,” Jameel said in a statement quoted by the local Minivan News service, before the vote on his sacking was taken in parliament.

“Every act was planned at driving a wedge between myself and the people who elected me. My reputation was threatened and finally I started receiving threats to my life.”

The image of the Maldives as an upmarket tourist destination has been dented by political unrest since the toppling of Nasheed in February 2012.

Yameen’s defence minister Mohamed Nazim was sentenced to 11 years in prison in March this year for trying to topple the government, and another former defence minister Tholhath Ibrahim was sent to jail for 10 years in April for terrorism.

Yameen came to power in 2013 after a run-off vote that had been delayed on the orders of the supreme court following a first-round election led by Nasheed.

In a statement issued later Wednesday, Yameen’s office said tourism minister Ahmed Adeeb, 33, was sworn in as the new vice president before Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed.