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 on Thursday 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.