President Mohamed Muizzu has set what may be the most consequential political precedent of his presidency: He has not used the state to pursue the president he replaced.
Since taking office in late 2023, Muizzu has not brought politically charged cases against former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, former President Mohamed Nasheed or senior leaders of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party. In the Maldives, where transfers of power have repeatedly been followed by prosecutions, imprisonment or exile of former leaders and their allies, that restraint represents a watershed break.
Muizzu’s position was clear from the beginning. After winning the September 2023 presidential election, he called for the release of former President Abdulla Yameen, his political ally, who was serving an 11-year sentence for corruption and money laundering. Yameen was moved from prison to house arrest shortly afterward. In April 2024, the High Court overturned the conviction, citing an unfair trial, and ordered a retrial.
Ending a Pattern of Political Retaliation
Muizzu inherited a political system in which imprisonment had become closely linked to the transfer of power.
Under Yameen, who governed from 2013 to 2018, former President Nasheed was convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 13 years in prison after a trial criticized by the United Nations and rights groups. Former defense minister Mohamed Nazim received a 25-year sentence. Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Yameen’s half brother, was arrested and later convicted after breaking with the government.
a move away from a politics in which losing office could mean losing one’s liberty.
When Solih defeated Yameen in 2018, his administration released several political prisoners. But Yameen was later convicted in cases involving resort-island leases, including a 2019 conviction connected to a $1 million payment. He spent periods in prison and under house arrest before Muizzu’s election.
Muizzu has not repeated either approach. He supported Yameen’s release, yet has not sought to imprison Solih, Nasheed or other prominent political opponents.
A New Standard for Political Transition
The historical record includes one important distinction. Nasheed’s presidency included his 2012 order to arrest Criminal Court Chief Judge Abdulla Mohamed, whom his government accused of obstructing a corruption investigation. The arrest was controversial and helped trigger the political crisis that ended Nasheed’s presidency.
But the case involved a judge, not a former president or an opposition political leader. It differed from the later pattern in which administrations moved against their most prominent rivals after elections.
Muizzu’s approach has changed the terms of political transition in the Maldives. It has shown that a president can take office without treating the defeat of a predecessor as grounds for imprisonment or political exclusion.
That is more than a departure from recent practice. It is a major democratic breakthrough: a move away from a politics in which losing office could mean losing one’s liberty. Whether future leaders follow the same standard will determine its durability. But Muizzu has, for now, established it.
