US assistant secretary for South Asia Nisha Biswal said Washington was concerned about a move away from democracy in the archipelago. Her comments echoed a call by the United Nations on Tuesday for Nasheed's early release. "It is a concern to us that rather than strengthening democratic institutions and processes, the government of Maldives seems to be moving away," Biswal was quoted by international newswire AFP while on a visit to neighbouring Sri Lanka. "We have called upon the government of the Maldives to respect due process." Police and prison officials clashed with supporters of Nasheed as they removed him from his home in the capital Male and took him to the high-security prison island of Maafushi on Sunday night. Nasheed's lawyers said the authorities were now disputing a letter hand-carried by a member of the Maldivian Correctional Service to Nasheed commuting his jail term to house arrest from July 19. Police have launched an investigation and did a search of Nasheed’s residence until the wee hours of Thursday morning. Police took away the CCTV hard-disk containing video footage of the correctional service officer. Government had also rebuffed international censure over Nasheed’s re-imprisonment, insisting that Maldives’ international partners have been ‘misinformed.’ The US State Department said Nasheed's trial in March had been conducted contrary to local laws as well as the country's international obligations. "We renew our call on the government of Maldives to release former President Nasheed, end politically motivated trials and take steps to restore confidence in its commitment to democracy and the rule of law," said spokesman John Kirby. Nasheed who leads opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) was sentenced to 13 years in prison after being convicted in a fast-tracked trial of orchestrating the arbitrary detention of Chief Criminal Judge Abdulla Mohamed while he was president.