AG accuses Nasheed

Attorney General Azima Shakoor has accused former president Mohamed Nasheed’s government of having attempted to grant a portion of the Maldives' lands to a foreign country.

Azima’s statement was published in her argument to the parliament, as her defence to the motion of no confidence against the Attorney General, being debated today.

The attempted sell-off of the country’s land was earlier shared with the Parliament’s National Security Committee, she said. She did not mention a specific country.

Answering allegations that she was against Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) presidential candidate, former president Mohamed Nasheed coming back to power, Azima said that she sincerely believes that a government led by Nasheed would be damaging to the country.

“It will damage the country’s Islamic identity and weaken the framework of the State. I am saying this because I am aware. However, I have not acted beyond the limits of the law. I have not taken part in political activities. In my term of office, I have only paid justice to him (former president Mohamed Nasheed), according to the law,” Azima’s statement read.

She said Nasheed’s government had drawn up perpetual agreements benefiting foreign countries, agreeing that the Maldives will not act, neither domestically nor internationally, to harm the interests of the country. Nasheed’s government had also assembled agreements to teach Judaism in Maldivian schools, she said.

She said that a foreign delegate had asked her to appeal to the Chief Justice to stop a sentence upon a MP, that would have resulted in the MP being disqualified. It was within the prerogatives of the Attorney General’s office to have acted in favour of such a request, she said.

If the no-confidence motion passes, her efforts to stop former president Nasheed from coming back to power is a sacrifice for the country and its people, Azima said.

“Therefore, if I am being removed from office as retribution for attempts to prevent such a man from coming to power, and even if I lose my office today, even if losing my office is a direct consequence of such attempts, or because, unlike you Honorable Speaker (Abdulla Shahid), I did not choose to join such a group of people, I view it as a sacrifice I make for this country. I will leave the office proudly, with my head held high. With the conviction that I made the sacrifice for my religion and for country,” Azima said.