Up to India to deal with Nasheed: Jameel

Home Minister Dr. Mohamed Jameel Ahmed has said that it is up to India to solve the issue of former president Mohamed Nasheed choosing to stay inside the Indian High Commission.

In an interview to Indian newspaper Times of India (TOI) yesterday, Jameel said that it is up to India to deal with Nasheed and that Maldives does not want to interfere.

“Dealing with Nasheed is up to India. The Maldivian government doesn't want to interfere in this,” Jameel said, answering questions from Times of India.

When the newspaper asked Jameel if Maldives will let India to negotiate with Nasheed, he said, “There is nothing for us to negotiate. India has to decide on what to do with Nasheed. Here, the Maldivian judiciary will deal with the case against Nasheed (he is accused of illegal arrest of the chief judge of a criminal court in January 2012). As the executive, we have nothing to negotiate on that.”

When the Times of India noted that Nasheed fears that if he comes out he would be arrested and prevented from contesting in the presidential election and when the Home Minister was asked if he can give assurance that Nasheed would not be arrested, the Home Minister replied: “I can assure that he will not be illegally arrested.”

When the times of India said that “Abdulla Mohamed, the judge arrested by Nasheed's government is seen as corrupt...” Jameel replied that there are corrupt judges all over the world and that the judicial services commission has gone through the charges against the judge and found him innocent.

Asked if the exchange of words between Maldives and India has affected relations between the two countries, Jameel said that a few things said by a small number of individuals on either side have not made any difference to the cordial relationship Maldives shares with India and that this is too trivial a matter to affect our international ties.

While Jameel has said that it is up to India to deal with Nasheed, the Maldives Foreign Affairs summoned Indian High Commissioner D. M. Mulay to the foreign office yesterday and handed a protest note to be conveyed to the Government of India.

For a government to summon an ambassador is perceived as an act of discontent in diplomacy, and does not often happen between two countries that have cordial relations.