Maldives President Abdulla Yameen declared a 15-day state of emergency in the honeymoon islands on Monday (Feb 5), before heavily armed troops stormed the country’s top court and a former president was arrested in a deepening political crisis.

The tiny tourist archipelago has been plunged into chaos recently, with the president pitted against the Supreme Court after he refused to comply with its Thursday order to release nine political dissidents.

The tense standoff comes amid a years-long government crackdown on dissent that has battered the image of the upmarket holiday paradise, with the president jailing almost all the political opposition since he came to power in 2013.

On Monday, Maldives police arrested Yameen’s estranged half-brother and former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had sided with the main opposition and was campaigning against him.

The 80-year-old, who was president for 30 years until the country’s first democratic elections in 2008, was taken away from his home in the capital Male around midnight on Monday, according to a tweet from his daughter Yumna Maumoon.

Shortly before he was taken in by the police, Gayoom also recorded a video message posted on Twitter to his supporters. “I have not done anything to be arrested,” he said. “I urge you to remain steadfast in your resolve too. We will not give up on the reform work we are doing.”

Heavily-armed troops and police special operations units had earlier stormed the Supreme Court building where Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and others were sheltering, the court said on Twitter, though their fate was not immediately clear.

Hundreds of people had gathered outside the courts complex and police used pepper spray to disperse the crowds.