Maldives prosecutors on Wednesday officially charged opposition Jumhoory Party (JP) leader Gasim Ibrahim on three counts including attempted bribery and undue influence.
The business magnate was arrested on Thursday over allegations of attempting to bribe fellow lawmakers and making incitements to overthrow the government in a speech he gave during a JP rally before the censure motion against parliament speaker Abdulla Maseeh.
Gasim has been remanded for six days while his lawyers have appealed both his remand and his arrest which they claim were illegal.
According to his legal team, Gasim was arrested in contravention of the parliamentarians’ privileges and immunity laws. The constitution only allows a lawmaker to be arrested from a scene of a crime if the authorities acquired an arrest warrant from a superior court, which must be requested directly by the prosecutor general’s office.
However, his arrest warrant was issued by the criminal court on direct request by the police.
The opposition coalition has claimed that the government is descending into autocracy and has been heavily critical of its “crackdown” on the opposition.
Meanwhile, most of Maldives’ international partners, including the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) have all echoed the call to find political common ground between the ruling parties and the opposition.
