Experts chosen by committee for CNI report investigation, are a group that believe that a coup was staged

It has come to light that the Danish expert team of lawyers chosen by the committee for the investigation of the report of the Commission of National Inquiry (CNI), had earlier published a report saying that a coup was staged to change the government of former President Mohamed Nasheed.

The parliament made an announcement in search of foreign experts in order to make the investigation of the CNI report by the Committee on Oversight of the Government a credible one. Out of the two groups that expressed interest, the committee chose the lawyer team of a Danish legal professor. The team was made up of Associate Professor of Public International Law and Director of Centre for International Justice at University of Copenhagen Anders Henriksen and two other lawyers.

Henriksen’s team had come to the conclusion, based on media reports and videos and photos collected from Maldivian citizens, that Nasheed’s government was changed through a coup. Their report “Arrested Democracy” was published five months after the change of government. The report was inaugurated by Nasheed at a ceremony held at Male’ City Council hall, and it was made public by Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) on 22 July 2012.

The work has not yet been assigned to the experts chosen by the committee. The parliament has said that the reason for this is the lack of funds to remunerate them for their work.

It has not yet been possible to obtain a comment of Committee Chairman Ali Waheed on the matter, as there is no answer on his phone.

Ali Waheed has earlier said that Henriksen’s team was chosen because they were capable. The committee has said that the CV of the other team was not that good, and not revealed any details related to them.