MALE: A court in the Maldives on Tuesday sentenced the country’s chief justice to nearly five months in prison on charges of obstructing government administration and justice.

The criminal court sentenced Abdulla Saeed to four months and 24 days for allegedly preventing the Supreme Court from receiving letters from the government.

Saeed was arrested in February during a political crisis that followed a Supreme Court order for the release and retrial of some of President Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s jailed political opponents because of alleged violations of due process during their earlier trials.

Saeed also faces separate charges of terrorism which carry a longer maximum term.

Maldives authorities ar­­rested Saeed and another justice who was on the bench which ordered the release of the political prisoners, incl­u­ding Mohamed Nasheed, the country’s first president elected in a free election in 2008.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2018