Maldives takes U-turns on Nasheed

The Maldives yesterday said it would appeal against the controversial conviction of former president Mohamed Nasheed for terrorism as it emerged his 13-year jail sentence had been commuted to house arrest.

The United Nations had described Nasheed's jailing in March after a quick-fire trial as "vastly unfair" while Washington had warned the conviction meant the honeymoon islands' fledgling democracy was in danger.

But in a surprise announcement contained in a government statement, authorities sought to distance themselves from the conviction before later confirming Nasheed was no longer behind bars.

"The prosecutor-general of the Maldives has decided to appeal the case of former president Mohamed Nasheed," said the statement.

The decision to appeal had been based on Nasheed's complaint of "procedural irregularities" in his trial, the statement added, including "the violation of some fundamental rights and inadequate time to prepare his defence".

Supporters of Nasheed, the archipelago's first democratically-elected leader before being toppled in 2012, have maintained the conviction was part of a strategy by President Abdulla Yameen's regime to silence him.

The sentencing on March 13 came less than a month after his arrest on February 22.

The government's own legal officers had pushed for the maximum sentence to be imposed on Nasheed and had stoutly defended its legal system in the face of an international backlash.

Nasheed had been incarcerated in a prison on a remote island after the sentencing in March although he was later moved to the main island of Male for medical treatment.

News that Nasheed would not now have to go back to prison came at a press conference in neighbouring Sri Lanka from one of his lawyers.

- 'Bizarre u-turn' -

US-based attorney Jared Genser said the government's decision to appeal the conviction was "bizarre" and it was difficult to comprehend how the sentence of a "convicted terrorist" could be commuted to house arrest.

"This is not just a U-turn by the government, it is bizarre," Genser told reporters in Colombo.

"There is no rule of law in the Maldives and they make it up as they go along."

A spokesman for the Maldivian High Commission in Colombo confirmed the changes to Nasheed's sentence, but gave no further details.

"It is correct that the jail term is now commuted to house arrest," Hussain Mazin told AFP.

Genser said his client's sentence had been formally commuted to house arrest on July 19.

"At the request of the government, he (Nasheed) did not make this commutation public until now," said Genser, part of a team of international lawyers for Nasheed which includes Amal Clooney.