Police drags Ex-Maldives President Nasheed to court to face terror charges

Former President of Maldives and opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed has reportedly been dragged into court by the police to face terror charges for ordering the arrest of a top judge while in office in January 2012.

Nasheed, who was arrested on Sunday, complained of being manhandled by the police after he had ignored previous attempts at preventing him from speaking to the press outside the court, reported the BBC.

He was denied bail and later seen with his arm in a sling.

His Maldivian Democratic Party condemned the "blatant denial of due process" by the Maldives prosecutor-general and called for his immediate release.

The court has given him three days to appoint a lawyer.

The report quoted his adviser as saying that he wanted to appeal but faced bureaucratic obstacles in doing so.

Maldives Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon said that the case pertained to the "kidnapping and abduction of an innocent person" and such activities were charged under anti-terror laws in the Maldives legal system.

She added that Nasheed was being kept in custody because he had a "history of avoiding and evading the courts."

Nasheed is a former human rights campaigner who served as the first democratically elected President of Maldives from 2008 to 2012 until he was forced to resign amid an army mutiny and public protests over the judge's fate.

He claimed that he was removed by a coup, a claim that was denied by his vice-president, Abdulla Yameen , who replaced him.

Yameen was elected to office in controversial polls in 2013 and is the half-brother of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who has been widely accused of autocracy.

The report said that Nasheed's arrest only adds to the growing instability in the country.