* News * World news * Maldives Maldives courts boycott sessions to protest chief justice's arrest

by the Guardian

Judge arrested on Monday after he freed an opposition leader detained for allegedly defaming the government

From democracy champion to a dictator



President Mohamed Nasheed's government was accused by opposition leader Mohamed Jameel Ahmed of working against the state religion, Islam, with the support of Christians and Jews. Photograph: Sinan Hussain/AP

The Maldives military has arrested the chief justice of the country's criminal court after he released an opposition leader who had been detained without a warrant for allegedly defaming the government.

The arrest of Judge Abdulla Mohamed on Monday has prompted all courts in the Maldives to boycott sessions on Tuesday, in what could become a showdown between the country's first freely elected government and the independent judiciary introduced by former pro-democracy political prisoner President Mohamed Nasheed after coming to power in 2008.

The arrest of a judge by the military is unprecedented in the Maldives, which became a multiparty democracy after 30 years of autocratic rule. It also sparked street protests in the capital of the Indian Ocean archipelago. read more