Case filed with Supreme Court seeking Speaker Nasheed’s dismissal

A lawyer has lodged a constitutional case with the Supreme Court seeking to dismiss Speaker Mohamed Nasheed from the Parliament.

The case was submitted to the court by Ahmed Thalib on Wednesday, accusing the former Maldivian president of violating his oath of office by representing Sri Lanka at the COP27 Summit in Egypt.

Thalib argues that representing a foreign sovereign power on a state-paid salary and in violating of his oath of loyalty to Maldives is in violation of Article 75 of the Constitution, which states that MPs must act in the best interest of Maldives and the Maldivian people, and must not abuse their position to promote personal interests of themselves or another.

He asked the court to declare Nasheed’s actions as unlawful and establish he had lost the legitimacy of his position as an MP.

Supreme Court has yet to confirm whether it has accepted or rejected the case.

Nasheed’s representation of Sri Lanka has also sparked criticism from former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and former attorney general Dr. Mohamed Munawwar.

Munawwar described Nasheed’s representation of a foreign state, given his position as the head of one of Maldives’ three powers of the state as “shameful”.

“Tell me a way one can become a greater traitor to the state of Maldives. The speaker of our Parliament went to represent another country. This is unbelievable,” he said.