MALDIVES – The Maldives Supreme Court has hit back at President AbdullaYameen’s refusal to free his jailed opponents amid an escalating crisisthat saw security forces seal off the country’s parliament and arrest twoopposition lawmakers on Sunday.Judges of the top court said there should be “no legal barrier” toreleasing the nine people, including the island nation’s exiled formerpresident Mohamed Nasheed, whose terrorism and corruption convictions itoverturned last week.

Their statement came after Attorney-General Mohamed Anil raised concernsabout freeing people convicted of “terrorism, bomb attacks, corruption,embezzlement and fraud”.

The top court’s ruling last week has plunged the Maldives into politicalturmoil and dealt a major blow to Yameen, who critics accuse of corruption,misrule and rights abuses.

He denies the allegations.

The sudden about face by the Supreme Court, which sided with Yameen in thepast, and the widespread international support for its verdict putsunprecedented pressure on the president to free his opponents ahead of apresidential election later this year.

The government accused the Supreme Court of trying to oust the president, aclaim judges did not respond to in their statement late on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, the attorney general, in a televised appearance flankedby the chiefs of the army and the police, said the government has receivednews of an imminent order by the Supreme Court to impeach Yameen.

“I have informed all law enforcement agencies they must not obey such anillegal order,” Anil said.

Ahmed Shiyam, the army chief, said the security forces would follow theattorney-general’s advice and “will not wait and watch as the Maldivesdescends into crisis”.

The opposition called Anil’s order to the security forces”unconstitutional, highly illegal, and dangerous” and petitioned parliamentto oust Anil, as well as the country’s chief prosecutor.

Shortly afterwards, soldiers surrounded the parliament building and sealedit off.

The opposition now have a majority in the 85-member house as the SupremeCourt ruling also reinstated 12 members of parliament who were stripped oftheir seats last year.

But two of the 12 were arrested at the airport on Sunday, shortly afterthey returned to the Maldives after spending months in exile.

Abdulla Sinan and Ilham Ahmed were detained on charges of bribery, a policespokesman told Al Jazeera.

Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, an opposition parliamentarian, condemned theirarrest in a statement.

“We call on the police to release the MPs immediately, and to stopfollowing unlawful orders, to stop obstructing the lawful mandate ofparliamentarians,” Solih said.

“In a desperate attempt to cling onto power, President Yameen has illegallyoverrun the state. His attorney-general has illegally assumed the powers ofthe apex court, while the military has overrun the legislature,” he added.

On Sunday night, hundreds of flag-waving opposition supporters took to thestreets calling on the government to abide by the court ruling.

Meanwhile, the official who heads the parliament’s secretariat resignedafter the speaker, a Yameen ally, cancel the opening of the parliament,scheduled for Tuesday, over unspecified “security concerns”. .

“I have stepped down,” Ahmed Mohamed told Al Jazeera on Sunday, withoutoffering further details.

The heads of the Maldives’ main high-security prison and the electionscommission have also quit in recent days.

Nasheed, speaking to a private television channel from neighbouring SriLanka on Sunday, called for protests and urged rank-and-file members of thesecurity forces to arrest the attorney-general as well as the chiefs of thearmy and police.

Anil’s statements were “tantamount to a coup”, the former president said ina post on Twitter.

The United Nations, European Union, and several foreign governmentsincluding India, the US and UK, have urged Yameen to comply with theSupreme Court’s ruling.