MALDIVES PRESIDENT ABDULLA YAMEEN DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY AS CRISIS DEEPENS

The Maldives government has declared a 15-day state of emergency as political tensions on the island nation continue to intensify.

#BREAKING Maldives president declares state of emergency: official

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 5, 2018

Legal Affairs Minister Azima Shakoor made the announcement on Monday evening on state television. 

Maldives President Abdulla Yameen has declared a state of emergency in the country for 15 days.

The move gives sweeping powers to security forces to arrest and detain suspects.

This comes amid a deepening political crisis in the island nation.

Maldives plunged into political turmoil last week after the country's top court threw out a "terrorism" conviction against its former president Mohamed Nasheed and ordered the release of nine other jailed politicians.

The ruling dealt a blow to President Abdulla Yameen with critics accusing him of corruption, misrule, and rights abuses. He denies the allegations.

Soldiers in riot gear surrounded the parliament building in the capital Male on Sunday soon after the opposition petitioned parliament to remove the South Asian island's attorney-general and its chief prosecutor.

Yameen, who has run the country with an iron hand since 2013, has been facing mounting pressure at home and from the United States and India to release former president Mohamed Nasheed from a 13-year jail sentence, and free eight other political opponents from prison.

Earlier on Monday Shakoor said, "the government does not believe that the Supreme Court ruling to release the political prisoners can be enforced".