Arrest warrant for Maldives ex-President

A judge issued an arrest warrant yesterday for the ex-president of the Maldives, who says he was forced from office in a coup, as troops deployed to restore order in the violence-wracked holiday paradise.

Police said they were holding the warrant for Mohamed Nasheed, the Indian Ocean country’s first democratically elected President, but had yet to execute the order.

“We can arrest him when we feel the need for it. We have to be careful and tactical as to how and when we do it,” police spokesman Abdul Mannan Yusuf said.

Mr Nasheed, who has hunkered down at his modest family home in the capital Male since losing the presidency on Tuesday, appealed for urgent foreign help.

“They have issued a warrant to arrest me now and said that I will be the first former President to spend the rest of his life in jail,” he told AFP. “I hope the international community will take note and do something right now.”

In Washington the State Department said the top US diplomat for south Asia had told Mr Nasheed it was pressing the authorities to protect his security.

But spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the US recognised the new Maldives government as legitimate.