Nasheed had sought permission to go abroad for a surgery on his back, but Correctional Service had repeatedly denied the request insisting that the microdiscectomy surgery could be done in the Maldives. However, in an apparent U-turn, foreign ministry announced on twitter Saturday the government had granted permission to Nasheed to travel to the UK to undergo surgery, at his request. He departed to the UK Monday evening. Government’s U-turn on Nasheed came in the wake of visits by the Indian foreign secretary and two senior Sri Lankan ministers which also coincides with a visit by the Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of UK Hugo Swire who arrived earlier Sunday. Indian foreign secretary Jaishankar arrived in Maldives Monday afternoon on a one-day official visit as a special envoy of the Indian prime minister. President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom briefed Jaishankar on the political developments in the Maldives and secured the regional superpower's backing in domestic and international affairs. Sri Lankan foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera and finance minister Ravi Karunanayake arrived in Maldives Wednesday evening on an official visit. However, foreign minister Dhunya Maumoon told reporters that the visits by officials of three countries were pre-planned with the government last month. There was no pressure on the government to release Nasheed, she added. “It’s a humanitarian initiative by the government, after considering the fact that he’s a former president and out of respect for his health and well-being,” the minister said, during a press conference at her office in capital Male Tuesday afternoon. All the foreign officials, according to Dhunya, paid courtesy calls on President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom and discussed ways on improving bilateral cooperation. She said those meetings were proof of the close relations between those countries. “But in meetings like these, the topic of domestic politics always comes up and they give their suggestions and views,” Dhunya said. “We’ve always insisted that President Yameen’s government listens to the suggestions and views of other countries, and that we’re committed to working together with international organisations.” The jailing of former president Nasheed and other politically motivated trials have made the Maldives the subject of mounting international criticism. International pressure was further fuelled after a UN panel ruled Nasheed's incarceration illegal. Dhunya also downplayed international media reports suggesting that Nasheed might not return to the Maldives after treatment, saying that the former president and his family had signed a declaration. The declaration signed by Nasheed’s brother, Nashid requires him to inform to the correctional service at the earliest if Nasheed goes missing or flees. In cases of negligence, the guarantor is required to take responsibility. According to the declaration, Nasheed is given 30 days for his surgery. In case an extension is required, the former president has to file his request to the correctional service along with doctors’ certificates. The former president’s lawyers have stepped up their efforts to impose targeted sanctions against the Maldives and its leadership, following the ruling by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention late September declaring his imprisonment as arbitrary. In the latest development, the European parliament passed a resolution last month condemning the human rights abuses of President Yameen's government, and calling for targeted sanctions to be imposed on his officials and supporters in the business community. The latest efforts by Nasheed's lawyers to seek US sanctions against the Maldives follows condemnation by top US officials of the former president's sentence. In his speech in Sri Lanka on May 2, the US Secretary of State John Kerry had said that the Maldives democracy was under threat. “… former President Nasheed has been imprisoned without due process. And that is an injustice that must be addressed soon,” he had said. In November, a group of high profile US senators introduced a resolution calling on the Maldives government to free Nasheed and other political prisoners. The submission was led by Senator Patrick Leahy and was backed by a coalition of 31 senators including John McCain, Marco Rubio and Richard Durbin. According to the bill, it was aimed at expressing the sense of Congress that the government of the Maldives should immediately release Nasheed and all other political prisoners in the country, and guarantee due process for, and respect the human rights of, all of the people of the Maldives. The US has been joined by several international organisations, including the United Nations and Commonwealth in criticising the rushed trial of Nasheed. On September 14, in his opening statement at the 30th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad had warned that the Maldives government was manipulating the rule of law in order to achieve its political ends. ‘‘Given the deeply tainted nature of this case, I urge the government to release him, and to review several hundred pending criminal cases against opposition supporters in relation to protests in recent months,” he had said, in reference to Nasheed’s detention. However, the government has on various occasions rejected efforts by Nasheed's lawyers to impose sanctions against the Maldives describing them as a political move aimed to unduly influence a legal process. India, the Maldives' closest neighbour and ally, also opposes such action. Meanwhile, the former president had filed for appeal his prison sentence after backtracking on his decision to not appeal his sentence by opting to go to the Supreme Court instead.