Tagged: Maldives

The spy who came in from the coup

by Azra Naseem

Law and order appears to have gone a bit schizophrenic in  the Maldives in the last few days. First the Maldives Police Service (MPS) arrested its intelligence head, Chief Superintendent (MC) Mohamed Hameed, on charges of ‘endangering internal security’ by disclosing classified information.

Hameed is alleged to have co-operated with the co-authors of ‘The Police and Military Coup’, an MDP-affiliated investigation into the events of 7 February 2012. The report was released in response to the current government’s ‘findings’ into the events, published so prematurely as to be available for public feedback even before investigations began.

MPS says drafts of the Coup Report, along with commentary, were found in MC Hameed’s gmail account. (Nobody has yet answered the question of why MPS was snooping around in the man’s private email account in the first place. Is it normal for MPS to spy on their officers?)

Then the Criminal Court granted MPS a five-day extension to Hameed’s detention. He was promptly taken to Dhoonidhoo, Maldives’ most famous prison island.  Hameed’s lawyers lodged an appeal at the High Court on the same day but was not granted a hearing until  the fifth and last day of his detention. Three Justices agreed unanimously that he should be detained for five days, just hours before the five-day detention period expired.

Now, is it just me, or is it a bit difficult to get your head around the question of why the High Court would deign to deliver that judgement at that particular time?  Three more hours, and the detention order would no longer be valid anyway. So what was the eleventh hour High Court ruling for?

The High Court’s behaviour becomes all the more inexplicable in light of the fact that shortly afterwards the Criminal Court released Hameed. It saw no grounds to detain him further. All told, the judiciary does not seem to know quite what to do, with itself or, with a problem like Hameed.

What is to be done with Hameed? Was he ‘spying for the enemy camp’ as some are alleging? Or is he a heroic whistle-blower? Is he to be jailed for life, or celebrated as a voice that stood up for democracy?

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Coups, cocks and condoms

by Azra Naseem

Ever since we humans  signed the social contract, there have been great many reasons and excuses for restricting freedom of assembly. I’d wager, though, that throwing a ‘cursed cock’ at army personnel, or being in possession of unused condoms have never before been among them.

Yesterday the Maldives Police Service raided the protest camp the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has erected near the north-eastern shores of Male’ the capital with a search warrant issued on the basis that it was being used for black magic and sorcery, along with other ‘criminal activity.’ Having searched the premises, they triumphantly announced to the press their discovery of ‘evidence’– an unused pack of condoms.

According to diligent reporters at Minivan News, a local online newspaper, it was a packet of Moods Ultrathin. Perhaps their criminality lies in what they promise. As Moods’ Indian manufacturers would have it, they give you the ‘delight of uninhibited pleasure’. And in modern Male’, being dragged kicking and screaming back to the 14th Century by Islamists, pleasure is fast becoming a crime punishable by Sharia.

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Who let the crows out?

by Azra Naseem

However you feel about MDP protests, you cannot say they are lacking in imagination.

When they were at Raalhugan’du, MDP activists’ first base after the coup, the place had a buzz similar to the Occupy sites that sprang up in cities across the world in this year’s anti-capitalist fervour. There was music, political oratory, poetry, and pudding. The young, the old, the city-folk and the islanders mingled, united in their condemnation of the coup.

Having been sent packing from Raalhugan’du, accused of possession of condoms and beer, MDP activists have transferred the atmosphere to street demonstrations. Now they come with drums, slogans, baton twirlers, and clever placards.

Now we have the Case of the Missing Crows at Usafasgan’du. Who let the crows out? Did they engineer a great escape, tired of the crowd incessantly cawing for early elections? Or, did the police kidnap them as is alleged?

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