The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has condemned what it described as “politically motivated” lawsuits against its Chairperson Fayyaz Ismail and party member Mariyam (Mandhy) Zubair, accusing the government of attempting to suppress dissent and silence opposition voices.
In a statement released on Friday, the MDP denounced the charges as “blatant attempts to intimidate political opposition and silence dissent against the administration,” citing that the allegations were “unfounded.”
The lawsuits stem from remarks allegedly made during a recent protest. However, the MDP rejected claims that its officials identified any children by name, asserting that neither Chairperson Ismail nor Zubair referred to any individuals. “It was Uz. Azima Shukoor, legal counsel to the first lady, who first identified the president’s son by name,” the statement said.
The party argued that Zubair’s remarks had merely challenged “the methods behind the president’s policy decisions,” while Ismail’s criticism had targeted “independent institutions that have remained silent throughout the wholesale dismantling of democratic norms.”
The MDP further accused the president’s family of leveraging state power to shield themselves from accountability, urging them “to cease further attempts to abuse state power to intimidate dissenters, and to ensure a safe environment for freedom of speech and expression to flourish.”
The statement marks an escalation in tensions between the opposition and the Muizzu administration, which critics say has taken an increasingly heavy-handed approach to political opposition and press freedom.