Video Related To: Ex-Maldives president arrested

Mohamed Nasheed & Maria Aniyaa being captured by Military junta, The former president of the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives awaited arrest in his house on Thursday, vowing to stay and fight against the government he says ousted him in a coup with the connivance of the police and military. Mohamed Nasheed spoke to reporters at his home on a narrow lane in Male, capital of the islands renowned for their luxury getaway resorts, as rain poured and hundreds of onlookers gathered under umbrellas awaiting the arrival of police. Nasheed, the islands' first democratically elected president, appeared to be daring the government led by his former vice president, Mohamed Waheed Hussain Manik, to arrest him after violent protests on Wednesday spread outside Male. "The home minister has pledged (I will be) the first former president to spend all my life in jail," said Nasheed, who was relaxed and smiling and showed no signs of his reported beating on Wednesday. He said he hoped the international community would act quickly as "the facts on the ground are that tomorrow I will be in jail". However, there was no sign of the police by early evening. Police Commissioner Abdullah Riyaz, when asked by Reuters if and when a warrant would be served, declined to comment. Nasheed said he would accept his arrest, as he did 27 times before, under the reign of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who jailed him for six years in all.