Maldives govt rejects UN ruling

A United Nations panel has ruled that the jailing of former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed was illegal and called for his immediate release, the government of the atoll nation said yesterday as it rejected the ruling.

The government said it had received a copy of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) ruling, which has not yet been made public, and which follows a complaint by the country's first democratically elected leader.

"The opinion of the WGAD is that the complaint submitted by the former president Nasheed ought to be upheld," the government said in a statement.

"The government... does not accept the decision of the WGAD and will not be made to act on the basis of a non-binding opinion."

There was no formal word from the Geneva-based WGAD, but official sources in the UN system confirmed that some of the findings had been shared with the Maldivian government prior to a formal announcement.

Nasheed's international lawyers said they will have the full UN ruling by Monday when they hope to make it public at a press conference scheduled in London.

Nasheed was jailed for 13 years earlier this year on terror charges related to the arrest of an allegedly corrupt judge when he was still president in 2012.