Britain grants refugee status to Maldives’ former president Nasheed
Nasheed, the Maldives’ first democratically elected president, was allowed to go to Britain in January for medical treatment after President Abdulla Yameen came under international pressure to let him leave
Britain has granted refugee status to Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives who was jailed in 2015 after a trial that drew international criticism, his lawyer said on Monday.
Nasheed, the Maldives’ first democratically elected president, was allowed to go to Britain in January for medical treatment after President Abdulla Yameen came under international pressure to let him leave.
Nasheed was jailed for 13 years on terrorism charges in after illegally ordering the arrest of a judge in a trial that put a spotlight on instability in the Indian Ocean archipelago known as a paradise for wealthy tourists.
“Nasheed has been granted political refugee status in the UK,” Hasan Latheef, Nasheed’s lawyer, told Reuters from the capital, Male.
A British High Commission official in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo said it did not comment on individual asylum cases.
Since his release, Nasheed has called for sanctions against Yameen and his allies for detaining political prisoners, mainly opposition leaders, and for alleged human rights abuses in the Maldives.