Maldives drops charges against opposition leader

MALE, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The Maldivian government on Thursday said it had dropped terrorism charges against one of the top contenders in the archipelago's first-ever multi-party presidential elections, due by early next month.

The charges against Mohamed Nasheed, one of the longest-standing opposition critics of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, were criticised by rights groups as politically motivated when they were instituted more than three years ago.

"We have requested withdrawal from the courts and to drop the charges," Hussein Shameem, deputy director at the attorney general's office, said. "There doesn't seem to be enough evidence to convict for those charges."

Gayoom, Asia's longest-serving leader after 30 years in power, is up for re-election to a seventh term at the vote due before Oct. 10. Election officials have yet to give a date.

It is seen as the biggest test of his pledge to bring democratic reform to the idyllic chain of more than 1,200 islands located off the tip of India, known worldwide more for luxury beach vacations than political intrigue.

Gayoom initiated a raft of reforms after facing international criticism for a heavy-handed crackdown on 2004 protests demanding his resignation and constitutional changes.

Nasheed, a longtime Gayoom critic and then head of the leading opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), was at the centre of those.

The government jailed him in August 2005 and accused him of telling a political rally that Gayoom should be violently deposed. He had faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Nasheed, who was released in September 2006, has always denied the charges and remained defiant.

"There was never anything to the charge. There is never anything to it. It was always understood to be politically motivated as with 26 other charges brought against me over the past 30 years," Nasheed told Reuters.

Nasheed's MDP is the largest opposition party, but the second-largest in parliament after several defections to the new Republican Party led by former finance minister Gasim Ibrahim.

Ibrahim, Nasheed, Gayoom and former attorney general Hassan Saeed and are tipped as the top contenders among eight in the race to lead the nation of 300,000 mostly Sunni Muslims. (Writing by Bryson Hull; Editing by Bill Tarrant))