The Department of Judicial Administration (DJA) has suspended 54 lawyers who called for reform the judiciary, allegedly "for contempt of court'.
The 54 lawyers were suspended on Sunday night, with the DJA tweeting about the matter at around 11 pm.
56 lawyers had, on 30th August, filed a petition over the country's judiciary at the Supreme Court. However, the petition was rejected by the Court.
The two lawyers additional lawyers who signed the petition, former deputy prosecutor general Hussain Shameem and Ali Hussain, are already under suspension.
Prominent lawyers, Hisaan Hussain, Mahfooz Saeed, Moosa Siraj, Anas Abdul Sattar, Ibrahim Riffath, Nazim Sattar, Hassan Latheef, Ali Zahir, Imthiyaz Fahmy and former attorney general Husnu Suood are some of the lawyers whose licenses that were suspended on Sunday.
Earlier on Sunday, a team of lawyers presented Attorney General Mohamed Anil with 'a great big copy' of the Maldivian constitution, 'to remind the AG to uphold basic rights and freedoms as per the Constitution'.
