Supreme Court has ended the review hearings on former President Mohamed Nasheed’s 13-year prison conviction.
The first and only hearing was held on Monday morning.
After accepting the prosecutor general’s request to review the case, the Supreme Court suspended Nasheed’s sentence, which allowed him to return to Maldives after years in self-exile.
At Monday’s hearing, the chief justice noted that the Supreme Court did not accept Nasheed’s appeal after the High Court backed the Criminal Court’s verdict. However, he highlighted that the Supreme Court on February 1 issued an order to free Nasheed due to his unfair conviction.
After the order was issued by the top court’s full bench, they were later compelled to revoke it after the arrest of then-chief justice Abdulla Saeed and justice Ali Hameed.
Speaking to journalists after the hearing, Nasheed’s attorney Hisaan Hussain said that, unless there’s more points to clarify, the verdict hearing will be held next. Nasheed said that he had asked the court to give a verdict as soon as possible.
Nasheed was found guilty of ordering the ‘abduction’ of a judge during his presidency and was sentenced to prison in March 2015 in a widely criticized trial. He later secured asylum in the United Kingdom while on medical treatment abroad.
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