Maldives foreign minister quits citing row on death penalty

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – The Maldives’ foreign minister resigned Tuesday saying she has irreconcilable disagreements with the government’s decision to implement the death penalty.

Dunya Maumoon said in a statement that her decision to step down was inevitable “because of the profound differences of opinion on the government’s policy on implementing the death penalty at a time when serious questions are being asked and concerns being expressed about the delivery of justice in the Maldives.”

But local media said the resignation is also a result of differences between President Yameen Abdul Gayoom, who is Dunya’s uncle, and her father Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who previously ruled the country for 30 years.

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is now the leader of the ruling Progressive Party of the Maldives.

The rift surfaced last week when Maumoon Abdul Gayoom openly opposed a law to lease out islands and lagoons for tourism projects without competitive bidding.

Last month, the Supreme Court last month confirmed the death penalty for a 22-year-old man convicted of killing a lawmaker in 2012. Just days before the court’s ruling, the government had amended rules to allow execution by lethal injection or hanging, indicating that the country’s decades-long moratorium on executions will soon end.

The latest dispute could exacerbate the country’s already fragile politics, with Maumoon Abdul Gayoom moving to strengthen his hold on the party.

The Maldives became a multiparty democracy in 2008 after Maumoon had held power for nearly 30 years. But the democratic gains have receded in recent years.

Yameen Abdul Gayoom is accused of using the courts, government bureaucracy and police to suppress the opposition and the media.

Since he was elected to office in 2013, four senior politicians have been jailed after trials that were widely criticized as lacking due process.

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s successor, Mohamed Nasheed, the country’s first democratically elected president, resigned under heavy criticism for having ordered the military to detain one of the country’s top judges. He then lost a presidential election to Yameen Abdul Gayoom.

Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in jail last year after a court ruled that the jailing of the judge was akin to terrorism.

Yameen’s former vice-president, Ahmed Adeeb, was sentenced to 33 years in prison on corruption and terrorism charges, including an alleged plot to assassinate the president.

Yameen’s former defence minister, Mohamed Nazim, and opposition party leader Sheik Imran Abdulla are also serving lengthy prison terms.

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Associated Press writer Hussain Sinan contributed to this report from Male, Maldives.