The Maldives High Court granted former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom bail on Sunday, making him the latest jailed opponent of President Abdulla Yameen to win freedom since Yameen lost a re-election bid a week ago.
The High Court granted Gayoom bail of 60,000 Maldivian rufiyaa ($3,891) after a secret hearing. Gayoom, who ruled the Maldives from 1978-2008, is awaiting trial on charges of trying to bribe officials to topple his the government of Yameen, his own estranged half-brother.
He was separately sentenced in June to 19 months imprisonment on obstruction of justice charges for refusing to hand over his mobile phone during the investigation.
In the run-up to last week's election, Yameen's government imprisoned a raft of his critics including two former presidents, two Supreme Court judges, two vice presidents, two defence ministers, a number of opposition leaders, lawmakers, and a former chief prosecutor.
Yameen lost his re-election bid to opposition leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih by more than 16 percentage points. Although Yameen is due to remain in office until Nov. 17 before Solih assumes the presidency, a number of Yameen's opponents have already been freed.
On Sunday, the High Court also granted bail to two legislators, Gayoom's son Faris Maumoon and tourism tycoon Gasim Ibrahim, who leads a political party.
The country of 400,000 people is popular with tourists but has seen political unrest since its first democratically elected leader, Mohamed Nasheed, was forced to quit amid a police mutiny in 2012.
