Canada condemns Maldives govt’s “politically motivated threats to arrest its opponents”

As Canada’s foreign minister, Baird is a member of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), the international body’s democracy and human rights arm that suspended the Maldives following the controversial transfer of power on February 7, and was behind the strengthening of President Mohamed Waheed’s Commission of National Inquiry (CNI).

“It is clear that the arrests of senior officials of the Nasheed government are politically motivated. Such actions are completely unacceptable and must be reversed,” Baird stated.

“The threats of the present government to arrest its opponents, including former President Nasheed – the only democratically elected president in the last four decades – so as to prevent his candidacy, undermine that government’s credibility and violate its undertakings to the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group. They also fly in the face of the core Commonwealth values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law,” Baird stated.