Warrant issued for ex-Maldives president

9 Feb 2012, 9:07 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Police in Male confirmed the unrest had spread to remote areas. (Getty)

Police in Male confirmed the unrest had spread to remote areas. (Getty)

A criminal court in the Maldives has issued an arrest warrant for former President Mohamed Nasheed.

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A criminal court in the Maldives has issued an arrest warrant for former President Mohamed Nasheed, who stepped down from power earlier this week but later insisted he had been ousted in a coup.

Police spokesman Abdul Mannan Yusuf refused to disclose the grounds for the warrant issued on Thursday, or when Nasheed - who is living at his home, surrounded by supporters - would be arrested.

Rioters had rampaged through the streets of the Maldives capital on Wednesday to demand Nasheed's return.

The new government of President Mohammed Waheed Hassan insists there was no coup, and that the change in power was legal.

A tense calm settled over the rainy Maldives capital on Thursday.

The streets of the country's main island were crowded with commuters, and officials of the new government say the violence has stopped on outlying islands after more than a dozen police stations were destroyed by pro-Nasheed protesters.

But the new defence minister vowed to punish those responsible for Wednesday's violence on the Indian Ocean archipelago, a mostly Muslim country of 300,000 that is home to dozens of high-end luxury resorts.

He called the destruction "acts of terrorism".

"The Maldives national defence force remains vigilant in enforcing the law and order and upholding the constitution of the Maldives," Mohammed Nazin told reporters on Thursday, barely 12 hours into his new job.

What exactly happened to Nasheed, a one-time human rights campaigner, remained unclear.

He resigned on Tuesday, after police joined months of street protests against his rule and soldiers defected, but insisted he had not been forced from power.

He was replaced by his vice president, Hassan.

On Wednesday, though, Nasheed said he had been ousted in a coup, and his supporters swept into the streets of Male and rampaged through a series of small, remote islands.

The new president insists there was no coup.

Maldives police commissioner Abdullah Riyaz said 18 police stations on several islands, along with an undetermined number of court houses and police vehicles, were destroyed in the violence.

Police said they detained 49 people after the Male rioting.

"We will come to power again," Nasheed said on Wednesday.

"We will never step back. I will not accept this coup and will bring justice to the Maldivians."

The Maldives is made up of nearly 1200 scattered islands, some of which have just a few hundred residents.

Nasheed's party insisted his ouster was engineered by rogue elements of the police and supporters of the country's former autocratic leader, whom Nasheed defeated in the Maldives' first multiparty elections in 2008.

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