The Maldives has been plunged into chaos following the arrest of the archipelago nation’s chief justice and other top judges, hours after President Abdulla Yameen imposed a 15-day state of emergency that suspended a host of political and legal rights.

The crackdown on the country’s senior judiciary — and the suspension of most civil and political rights — marks an escalation of the stand-off between Mr Yameen and the Supreme Court, which last week ordered the release of several incarcerated opposition politicians.

The Supreme Court’s judgment quashed the criminal conviction of former president Mohamed Nasheed, paving the way for the exiled opposition leader’s return to the Maldives to contest upcoming elections — in which Mr Yameen had expected to run virtually unchallenged.