Maldives’ ex-president Nasheed sentenced to 13 years in prison

MALE/COLOMBO, (Reuters) – Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison yesterday after being found guilty of terrorism for ordering the arrest of a judge when he was in power in 2012.

Mohamed Nasheed
Mohamed Nasheed

The verdict is the latest chapter in three turbulent years in which Nasheed, the Indian Ocean archipelago’s first democratically elected leader, was ousted in disputed circumstances, then narrowly defeated in a controversial election, and then, last month, cleared over the incident for which he has now been convicted.

“The prosecution’s evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that Nasheed ordered the chief judge’s arrest or forceful abduction and detention on Girifushi island,” Judge Abdulla Didi said in the court in the capital, Male.