As the sun rose over Male on 7 February, the Maldives' first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, was being held at gunpoint by a dozen or so military officers. He faced a stark choice: resign or allow the country to be drowned in a bloodbath. For Nasheed, a pro-democracy campaigner and former prisoner of conscience who played a pivotal role in toppling former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's 30-year-long dictatorship, the choice was clear. He would resign.
Gathered outside the military compound at Republic Square – so named for being the scene of a failed coup against Gayoom's regime in November 1988 – were prominent members of the opposition and clergy. Also present were several hundred protestors, many of whom had been on the streets of Male for 22 consecutive nights, demonstrating loudly and often violently against a decision made by Nasheed's government to take Abdulla Mohammed, the chief judge of the Maldives Criminal Court, into military custody. President Nasheed had arrived at the scene, where protests had continued all night, around 6:30 am.