Maldives President Abdulla Yameen declared a state of emergency on November 3, 2015, giving sweeping powers to security forces to arrest suspects ahead of a major anti-government protest rally. (AFP)
Male, Maldives:
Police in the Maldives today raided a private television station in connection with a YouTube video that allegedly threatened President Abdulla Yameen, the network's managing director said.
The move came days after President Yameen imposed a state of emergency, giving wider powers to police and armed forces to arrest and suspending freedom of assembly and freedom of movement
Ibrahim Waheed said police had stopped Sangu TV from broadcasting and searched its studios in the capital island Male in a pre-dawn raid, removing computer hard disks.
"They have taken all the hard drives of all our computer systems," Waheed told reporters.
"The station has come to a complete standstill."
Police had accused the station of uploading a YouTube video which reportedly showed three masked men issuing a death threat to the president with the flag of the Islamic State group in the background.
The Maldivian authorities had previously dismissed the video as a fake.
The motive for the raid was not immediately clear but there are growing concerns about radicalisation in the Maldives, with local media saying dozens of the country's citizens have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight with the Islamic State group. At least five are known to have died.
The honeymoon island nation has been in turmoil since the country's first democratically elected President Mohamed Nasheed was forced to step down following a mutiny in February 2012.
The unrest heightened after Yameen had Nasheed jailed in March on a charge of "terrorism" following a rushed trial which the UN says was seriously flawed. A UN panel last month called for Nasheed's freedom, a demand rejected by Yameen.
On Thursday, Yameen fast-tracked the impeachment of his estranged vice president Ahmed Adeeb using emergency laws and ignoring calls from the US and Britain to immediately revoke the draconian laws, restore individual freedoms and free political prisoners.
Thursday's impeachment of Adeeb, formerly a close ally of the president, is the second in just under four months Yameen sacked former vice president Mohamed Jameel in July.
Jameel, who was Yameen's running mate at the controversial November 2013 election, is still on the run after the president accused him of trying to topple the government.
Adeeb is already under arrest accused of links to the September 28 blast aboard the presidential speed boat. Yameen was unhurt, but says it was an attempt to kill him.
Adeeb, who had a meteoric rise in politics, was also a hate figure for the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), which accused him of dispatching underworld gangs to launch attacks against dissidents.
There has been no word from the opposition MDP on whether it would defy the state of emergency to hold a planned rally today.
The move came days after President Yameen imposed a state of emergency, giving wider powers to police and armed forces to arrest and suspending freedom of assembly and freedom of movement
Ibrahim Waheed said police had stopped Sangu TV from broadcasting and searched its studios in the capital island Male in a pre-dawn raid, removing computer hard disks.
"They have taken all the hard drives of all our computer systems," Waheed told reporters.
"The station has come to a complete standstill."
Police had accused the station of uploading a YouTube video which reportedly showed three masked men issuing a death threat to the president with the flag of the Islamic State group in the background.
The Maldivian authorities had previously dismissed the video as a fake.
The motive for the raid was not immediately clear but there are growing concerns about radicalisation in the Maldives, with local media saying dozens of the country's citizens have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight with the Islamic State group. At least five are known to have died.
The honeymoon island nation has been in turmoil since the country's first democratically elected President Mohamed Nasheed was forced to step down following a mutiny in February 2012.
The unrest heightened after Yameen had Nasheed jailed in March on a charge of "terrorism" following a rushed trial which the UN says was seriously flawed. A UN panel last month called for Nasheed's freedom, a demand rejected by Yameen.
On Thursday, Yameen fast-tracked the impeachment of his estranged vice president Ahmed Adeeb using emergency laws and ignoring calls from the US and Britain to immediately revoke the draconian laws, restore individual freedoms and free political prisoners.
Thursday's impeachment of Adeeb, formerly a close ally of the president, is the second in just under four months Yameen sacked former vice president Mohamed Jameel in July.
Jameel, who was Yameen's running mate at the controversial November 2013 election, is still on the run after the president accused him of trying to topple the government.
Adeeb is already under arrest accused of links to the September 28 blast aboard the presidential speed boat. Yameen was unhurt, but says it was an attempt to kill him.
Adeeb, who had a meteoric rise in politics, was also a hate figure for the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), which accused him of dispatching underworld gangs to launch attacks against dissidents.
There has been no word from the opposition MDP on whether it would defy the state of emergency to hold a planned rally today.
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