Maldives Supreme Court revokes order to free prisoners

The Maldives Supreme Court on Tuesday revoked its earlier order to release nine high-profile political prisoners.

The announcement came a day after President Abdulla Yameen declared a state of emergency and arrested two Supreme Court judges.

The court's three remaining judges said in a statement that they were rescinding the order to release the prisoners "in light of the concerns raised by the President".

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"The Supreme Court bench hereby rescinds number 5 of its order to release the individuals," the order said.

The court's original decision signed by all five judges of the apex court on February 1 had quashed a terrorism conviction against former president and opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed, among others.

The shock decision of the court in support of the political dissidents was seen as clearing the way for Nasheed to end his self-imposed exile and return to the country to contest elections later this year.

The move also included an order for the government to restore the seats of 12 legislators sacked for defecting from Yameen's party, giving the opposition a majority in the assembly and meaning they could potentially impeach the president.

Yameen however had refused to comply with the order.

He had on Monday instead imposed a 15-day emergency on the island nation.The state of emergency gave the country's security forces sweeping power to detain and arrest suspects.

Yameen, in an official statement, called the Supreme Court order unconstitutional. He said that were several obstacles to enforcing the apex court's ruling which the government was not able to communicate to the court.

He added that the justices were "unaccountable", and that they were conspiring to overthrow him.

Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said the U-turn of the Supreme Court was due to pressure brought on the three judges.

"Yameen has used coercion to get the original decision revoked," AFP reported MDP spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor as saying.

Yameen has presided over an escalating crackdown on dissent since he came to power in 2013, battering the image of the upmarket holiday paradise.

India meanwhile has responded strongly to the crisis saying it is "disturbed" by the imposition of the emergency.

Government sources in India have also said that they are keeping their troops on the ready. The sources added that this was standard operating procedure.

(With inputs from AFP)