Former President Mohamed Nasheed was prevented from exercising his right to a lawyer and to seek legal consultation, as stated in Article 53 of the Constitution, during the second hearing in his surprise trial for ‘terrorism’, held on Thursday evening at the Criminal Court in Male’, Maldives.
The former President was kept in the witness stand, rather than being allowed to sit alongside his lawyers, despite repeated requests to do so.
The presiding judge refused to grant leave for President Nasheed to sit alongside his legal team and stated that the bench has already given a ruling on the matter and it could not be changed.
As a result, President Nasheed was effectively prevented from properly consulting with his legal team.
Moreover, President Nasheed’s legal team raised concerns that they had not been given adequate time to prepare a reasonable defense against a charge as serious as terrorism.
Nonetheless, the bench allowed the legal team a mere three days to prepare their case. Normally, the court grants a period of 10 days to prepare a defence.
During the first hearing on Monday, President Nasheed’s lawyers were prevented from even attending court.
In another irregular move this evening, the Criminal Court denied entry to local journalists, NGO representatives, international trial observers and international diplomats, even though they had successfully registered to attend the session earlier in the day.
Blinne Ni Ghralaigh, from the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales was denied access to the court and thus prevented from observing the trial, as was a diplomat from the British High Commission in Colombo.