COLOMBO: An international rights group on Thursday criticised the dismissal of two top judges in the Maldives, including the chief justice, calling it an assault on judicial independence.

Parliament in the Indian Ocean nation voted last Sunday to remove Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz Hussain and Supreme Court Justice Muthasim Adnan to reduce the bench from seven to five.

The Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists on Thursday called the removal arbitrary and unlawful because the judges had not been given a fair hearing.

“The Maldivian Parliament and executive have effectively decapitated the country’s judiciary and trampled on the fundamental principles of the rule of law and separation of powers in a democratic state,” the group’s Asia Pacific director, Sam Zarifi, said in a statement.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2014