Reference No: 05 /02/2013
1 February 2013
Call for the immediate release of MDP members and office bearers arrested at peaceful rally.
The Maldivian Democratic Party calls for the immediate release of MDP members and office bearers arrested in a Police swoop into a peaceful rally held by the Party in Male’ today. The fourteen people arrested, transferred and being held at Dhoonidhoo Jail include Male’ City Councilor Mr. Mohamed Falah, President of the Party’s Youth Wing Ms. Aminath Shauna and other key dedicated workers of the MDP.
Peaceful rallies were held by the MDP in many populous islands in Maldives today (01 February) without incident. As participants of the rally held in Male’ stopped near the Usfasgandu, ( an acre of vacant land on the North Eastern shore, barricaded by Police in an ongoing dispute between the usurper government and the Male’ City Council) tens of Police had barged into to the crowd and arrested MDP office bearers and members.
The MDP condemns in the strongest terms the tele-guided Police swoop into the rally as a politically motivated and a premeditated illegal incursion to arrest a specific target list of highly dedicated party workers. Eye witness reports have established that today’s foray also was characterized by high-handedness and needless force typical to the Police Special Ops squads in the clutches of a usurper Police Commissioner and by default a usurper government.
Thousands of MDP members and supporters all over the country have begun a series of peaceful marches to symbolize their rage and to express that they detest the usurper Coup d’état and its illegitimate government. The high turn-outs reinstate that not a single Maldivian except those who took part in or directly benefitted from the Coup d’état believes any longer the final report of the Commission of National Inquiry instituted by usurper President Dr. Mohamed Waheed.
The MDP also condemns false media reports that those arrested were people who had breached Police lines, which were directly revealed to be outright lies through live reports broadcast by a number of private radio channels. The MDP calls upon implicated media organizations to retract such false and misleading content and to endeavor to attain higher standards of credibility, despite consistent disregard to repudiate common allegations of being blatantly biased as defenders of the usurper regime.
The Maldivian Democratic Party finds it reprehensible and condemns the usurper regime’s actions that expose yet another correlation to the sequence of politically motivated violations of the Constitution. The party urges all concerned authorities and international well wishers to prevail on the usurper regime to desist from these actions to aggravate and arrest key party members and supporters. The MDP further urges all authorities, organizations and countries to express their stand on the usurper regime’s stated ultimate intention of getting an allegedly unconstitutionally convened Judiciary (during the tenure and allegedly influenced by former dictator President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom) to sentence President Mohamed Nasheed to a prison term that will annul his candidacy for Presidential elections scheduled for 07 September 2013.
The Maldivian Democratic Party is resolved to actively resist and take a strong stand against all illegitimate attempts to negate our Constitutional right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.
The Maldivian Democratic Party calls for the immediate release of members presently in Police detention for their illustrious work to defend freedom of assembly and freedom of expression. //
