Former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed says Indian government played a role in his escape from imprisonment in Maldives.
Nasheed made the comments in an interview to The Wire about the Indian government’s policy towards neighboring Maldives.
Nasheed is currently in India to partake in a seminar on South-South cooperation by the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) - an autonomous think-tank of the Ministry of External Affairs of India.
Nasheed, in his interview to The Wire, said that he believed the invite to him to join the seminar was a “signal” from the Indian government towards its dissatisfaction with President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.
“It must be. There is no other you could read it. You have to be blind not to be able to read [the signal]. I would be meeting [here] the officials and lot of Indian friends that I have. And this is the kind of reaction that mature democracies would have on the situation,” said Nasheed.
He then commented that the Indian government played a role in his escape from prison in Maldives.
“The fact that I am out of prison, the fact that I am here, you must be able to read (into it). It doesn’t take much to read...,” said Nasheed.
Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the unlawful detention of former Chief Judge of Criminal Court, Abdulla Mohamed (Abdulla Gaazee) in 2013, during his presidency.
He was serving his prison sentence when he was granted permission to travel to the UK for medical treatment, where he now enjoys political refugee status.
Nasheed also spoke about the detention of Abdulla Gaazee in his interview. He admitted that his administration could have handled the situation better, and that it hadn’t been “the best of thing to do”.