THE Maldives stand on a knife edge. At stake is its hard-won liberal democracy, forged from the ruins of a brutal, 30-year dictatorship — a period that was synonymous with serious human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings and torture. President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s rule was eventually ended in 2008, by a democratic vote in which I was elected. But it is important that the outside world clearly understands that Gayoom, his allies and his henchmen are back. It was they who established, late last year, the ‘December coalition’ of Islamic extremists who accused my government of being controlled by ‘Jews’ and ‘Christians’ and used incitement to religious hatred and violence as political tools. It was they who orchestrated February’s overthrow of the Maldives’ first democratically elected government. And it is they who control the current administration. From this position of strength, they are slowly squeezing the life out of the democratic fabric of my country.

Despite this, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (Cmag), which met last week, is considering removing the Maldives situation from its agenda. A decision is expected later this month.

Thousands of pro-democracy protesters in the Maldives have been arrested and imprisoned. Many have been tortured, or charged with terrorism. Freedom of speech is being strictly curtailed — and the country’s independent oversight bodies are being staffed with friends and relatives.

Moreover, a sense of impunity is taking hold. Key agents of February’s coup d’etat, and the police officers responsible for the violence that followed, know they cannot be touched. Despite gross and systematic human rights violations since February — all catalogued by NGOs such as Amnesty International — not one police officer or state representative has been prosecuted.

The government has said it will not do anything to ensure accountability for these crimes. And yet it is ruthlessly pursuing legal action against many of the pro-democracy campaigners elected to government in 2008, including myself. Numerous members of parliament from my party, the Maldives Democratic party, have been taken before pliant judges and stripped of their seats. The government has also made clear that I and members of my former cabinet will stand trial very soon, with the home minister promising that I will be imprisoned for the rest of my life.

Their goal, in addition to revenge for their electoral defeat, is to prevent me standing in next year’s election. Gayoom and his allies lost power through a free and fair election: they will not make the same mistake twice.

If Cmag were to remove the Maldives from its agenda the chances of securing justice for the victims of human rights violations, and of ever again having free and fair elections in the country, would disappear. So I urge the group members to keep the spotlight on my country until all violations have been dealt with, all victims have received redress, and conditions are in place for fresh elections. — The Guardian, London

Note: Mohamed Nasheed was president of the Maldives from 2008 to 2012.