UN High Commissioner terms ex-Maldives' President Nasheed's trial 'flawed'

The United Nations High Commissioner for human rights has gone on record to say that the trial that resulted in the jailing of former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed for 13 years last week was marked by "flagrant irregularities."

High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement that the sentence handed down to Nasheed by the criminal court in Male was part of "a rushed process" that prevented the former president's defence counsel from calling witnesses, reported The Express Tribune.

Zaid, a former Jordanian ambassador to the United Nations in New York, remarked that the trial flouted Maldives' own laws and practices and international fair trial standards in a number of respects.

India and the United States also voiced their concerns over the case but were brushed aside by the country's government. Foreign Minister Dhunya Maumoon claimed that the trial was conducted in accordance with the relevant laws and criminal procedures prevailing in the Maldives.

Nasheed, the country's first democratically-elected leader, was ousted in 2012 in what his supporters said was a coup. He was arrested last month and was held guilty of terrorism for ordering the arrest of a judge earlier in 2012.

He came to power in 2008, ending the 30-year-long rule of authoritarian leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.