During the last hearing of his trial on March 6, Nasheed was produced in court under Police custody. Nasheed's legal team had sent a letter to the Prosecutor General's (PG) office where the prosecution was asked to delay the ex-president's trial by four weeks or put off the trial until after the presidential election later this year. As the letter had put down two periods by which to delay the trial, when the Judges bench had asked prosecutors of their stand, prosecutors said they had no reservations in delaying the trial by four weeks and had no objection to putting off the trial until after the election. However, as the Elections Commission is yet to announce Nasheed as a presidential candidate for the elections, the Judges bench had said it will not decide on delaying the trial until after the election at this time. The Hulhumale Court decided that the trial should proceed, albeit ruling a delay of four weeks. Earlier Nasheed filed the same request at the Supreme Court, which was also refused. “An appeal was submitted to the Supreme Court asking them to delay President Nasheed’s trial till after the elections. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case, I believe on the grounds that it was not a constitutional issue and hence has to go through the normal appeal procedure,” President Nasheed’s spokesperson Mariya Ahmed Didi said. “We are now appealing the Hulhumale’ Magistrate Court’s decision at the High Court on the grounds that once the Prosecutor has no objection to the delay of the trial till after the election, there is no reason why the Court should grant four weeks but refuse to grant President Nasheed’s request to delay his trial till after the elections.” Nasheed is accused of illegally ordering the arrest of Chief Criminal Judge Abdulla Mohamed while in office, and was produced in court last week under police custody to face trial for “unlawfully arresting an innocent person” under Maldivian law. If convicted and sentenced to a period of more than year, Nasheed will be disqualified from standing in the upcoming presidential elections. The ex-president has described the charges as a politically motivated sham designed to bar him from contesting in the election. Members of the international community have repeatedly questioned the credibility of the upcoming Presidential elections should Nasheed, the chosen candidate of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) be prevented from contesting. Meanwhile Hulhumale Court has slated the next hearing of Nasheed's trial for April 4.