MALE • The Maldives Parliament sacked the chief prosecutor shortly after the government bowed to international pressure and lifted a week-long state of emergency imposed after an alleged plot to blow up President Abdulla Yameen.

At a hastily convened midnight parliamentary session on Tuesday, ruling party legislators voted overwhelmingly to sack Prosecutor General Muhthaz Muhsin, without disclosing the allegations against him.

The main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party boycotted the vote, saying it was rushed. It believes Mr Muhsin was removed on suspicion of supporting estranged Vice-President Ahmed Adeeb, who is under arrest in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate the President in a blast on Sept 28.

The government announced earlier on Tuesday it was ending the state of emergency.

Mr Yameen imposed the emergency last Wednesday in a move that gave wider powers to police and armed forces to make arrests and suspend freedom of assembly and movement. Mr Adeeb was impeached during the emergency.

Britain, as well as the United States, the European Union and neighbouring Sri Lanka, had called for an immediate end to the emergency, which was seen as a tool to suppress dissent.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE