Maldives drops charges against opposition leader

By Olivia Lang

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.