Maldives Supreme Court upholds prison sentence of former president News
Maldives Supreme Court upholds prison sentence of former president

The Supreme Court of the Maldives [official website] on Monday upheld [decision, in Dhivehi] the 13-year prison sentence of former President Mohamed Nasheed [JURIST news archive] on terrorism-related charges. Nasheed was originally sentenced [JURIST report] in March 2015 after he was found guilty of unilaterally arresting [JURIST report] then-Chief Justice Abdulla Mohamed on corruption charges. Facing international pressure, the government appealed Nasheed’s sentence, arguing that he was not afforded sufficient time to prepare a defense. Monday’s ruling by the Supreme Court rejected that argument and upheld the sentence. Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) [party website] called the ruling unsurprising [press release] and emblematic of “democratic backsliding” in the country. Nasheed’s sentence had been commuted to house arrest last July due to concerns for his health, but the original custodial sentence was reinstated [JURIST report] a month later.

The Maldivian judiciary has generated significant controversy in recent years. In May 2015, a senior official at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] said [press release] that Nasheed’s trial and conviction of former was “vastly unfair, arbitrary, and disproportionate” [JURIST report] and urged action to resolve the deepening political crisis. In October 2014, the OHCHR expressed concern [JURIST report] over the Supreme Court’s prosecution of five members of the Maldives Human Rights Commission [official website]. In March 2014, the Supreme Court dismissed [JURIST report] the country’s four top election commissioners, giving each a six-month jail sentence and three-year suspension for “disobeying orders.” In November 2013 the Supreme Court suspended [JURIST report] the nation’s presidential election for the third time.

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