Male’, Maldives – The State says that the Supreme Court does not have the jurisdiction over the case of Dr. Mohamed Jameel Ahmed’s dismissal from his position as the Vice President of Maldives.
During the presidency of Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, Jameel was the fourth Vice President of the Maldives for two years since 2013, until the parliament voted to dismiss him from his position, following a no confidence vote. This was following accusations against Jameel saying that he was conspiring with opposition parties and had worked behind the scenes organizing the massive riots against the then administration in May 2015.
Due to this, Jameel has filed a case with the Supreme Court saying that when the previous Parliament members had dismissed him from his position, they had violated the constitution in doing so.
While the hearing for this case started today, the state said that the constitution stipulates that courts cannot determine the accuracy of the decisions made by the Parliament. The state reminded that this constitution is made to protect the decisions that are made by the parliament.
The state further said that even though the constitution allows the Supreme Court to give jurisdiction on an unreliable case where the parliament decides to vote to dismiss a President, the constitution does not say anything about how a case regarding the dismissal of a Vice President should be handled. This is why, the constitution does not state that the Supreme Court can give jurisdiction on Jameel’s case.
Although the Supreme Court declared in 2017 that the court would be making the final decision on cases regarding no confidence votes, the state said that it believes the decision of the court is wrong..
It was further said that the decision taken by the court back then was not a decision that adheres to the constitution and that the Supreme Court had also recently decided that even the courts cannot use a power that the constitution did not give. The state said that the Supreme Court must back out from the decision that was made three years ago.
This is why, on the first hearing of Jameel’s case that was held in Supreme Court today, several questions were asked by the 5 Supreme Court judges on the bench. Some of the questions included of how this case can be handled by the Supreme Court and what would happen if the Parliament went did something that was against the constitution.
While members of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) were attempting to get Jameel deposed back then, the former VP Dr. Jameel left the Maldives for supposed medical treatment to the neighboring Sri Lanka, after which he went to the United Kingdom and stayed in self exile until the 2018 presidential election was over.
His reasoning for the lengthy stay in the UK was that his return to the Maldives would most likely result in his arrest, which was not uncommon for high profile politicians during that time during the Former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s administration.
The former Vice President Dr. Jameel is also a part of the current opposition. Before he jumped ship, he played a key role of bringing the current administration to power. He rejoined PPM in August of this year as an advisor after resigning from Jumhooree Party saying that he lacks the opportunity to carry out his vision for the country while being in the party.
