Rift emerges between Maldives president and speaker

Divisions arose in the wake of a presidential commission’s revelations last week about the suspected murder of journalist Ahmed Rilwan by a local extremist group with links to al-Qaeda.

The findings prompted Nasheed to repeat his warnings of a “deep state” with terrorist sympathisers in strategic positions, and to persistently criticise the failure to arrest police intelligence officers who followed Rilwan and listened to his calls weeks before the abduction. Speaking at an MDP council meeting on Sunday night, Nasheed claimed to have been told by the Maldives National Defence Force that he himself was under surveillance by the police.

At a press conference the following day, a visibly vexed Solih backed the security service’s denial of spying on Nasheed and expressed displeasure with the speaker – without naming him – for sharing the commission’s draft report with opposition parliamentary group leaders and making a summary available to the public.