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MALE, Maldives (AP): Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has sacked his reformist attorney general and a government minister a day after beginning his record sixth term in office, state-run media reported Wednesday.
The report gave no reason for the sackings of Attorney General Mohamed Munavvar and National Development Minister Ibrahim Hussain Zaki.
Gayoom, 65, Asia's longest-serving leader, has been in power since 1978, ruling the tiny Indian Ocean nation with an iron fist. He won another five-year term in an Oct. 17 referendum in which he was the only candidate.
Critics attributed the sackings to Gayoom's displeasure over reports that Munavvar and Zaki had backed reformists in an unsuccessful move toward registering of a political party in the Maldives.
Gayoom does not allow opposition parties. The sacked minister, Zaki, was once secretary-general of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation, a group promoting economic ties between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Hassan Saeed, formerly chief magistrate of the criminal court, was named as the new attorney general. The new development minister is Grayoom's nephew Hamdoon Hameed.
At his swearing in on Tuesday, Grayoom had promised government reforms.
He pledged unspecified changes to the judiciary, executive and power of Parliament, and the setting up of a human rights commission in the wake of recent widespread riots in capital Male.
Rights group Amnesty International accused the Maldives government in September of "endemic torture and unfair trials,'' and blamed pre-vote rioting on a culture of repression.
The Maldives, a chain of 1,192 coral atolls and a popular tourist destination, lies about 500 kilometers (300 miles) southwest of Sri Lanka.