Male: Beleaguered Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen has declared a 15-day state of emergency, his aide Azima Shukoor announced on state television Monday.

The move gives sweeping powers to security forces to arrest and detain suspects, and comes amid a deepening political crisis in the Indian Ocean nation as Yameen refuses to comply with a Supreme Court order to release political prisoners.

The Supreme Court on Sunday asked Yameen to comply with its order, saying the dissidents must be released because their trials were politically motivated and flawed.

But the strongman leader has remained defiant, suspending parliament, ordering the arrest of two returning opposition defectors and staging a rally late Sunday with hundreds of supporters in the capital Male.

In a letter addressed to the international community, Maldive opposition lawmakers appealed for external support in persuading Yameen to end the tense standoff with the country's highest court.

Yameen's regime has so far refused to release nine jailed dissidents and reinstate opposition lawmakers as ordered by the Maldives' top court in a shock ruling last week that has deepened turmoil in the atoll nation.