ZCZC
BFF-48
SRILANKA-MALDIVES-NASHEED
Maldives ex-leader Nasheed ends exile
COLOMBO, Nov 1, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed
returned home from exile Thursday, two days after the country’s Supreme Court
withdrew a warrant for his arrest.
Nasheed, who had been jailed for 13 years on a controversial terrorism
charge, was welcomed at Male airport by president-elect Ibrahim Mohamed Solih
and hundreds of supporters.
It was not immediately clear what role he will have in the new government
to be constituted by Solih this month.
The Supreme Court had ruled that Nasheed could not be detained until his
appeal against the jail sentence for terrorism is heard.
The 51-year-old democracy champion was branded a fugitive from justice
when he went into exile in 2016 after seeking medical treatment abroad while
serving the jail sentence. He risked arrest if he ever returned to the
Maldives under President Abdulla Yameen, who jailed or exiled most of his
opponents.
However, the strongman leader suffered a surprise defeat last month in an
election and must leave office on November 17. The president-elect is a
nominee of Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).
Nasheed had hoped to run against Yameen but was barred by the election
commission.
Since Yameen’s defeat, political prisoners have been freed and exiles have
returned from abroad as the Maldives prepares a transition to new leadership.
Elected president in the country’s first democratic poll in 2008, Nasheed
was found guilty of terrorism in 2015 in a trial the UN said was politically
motivated.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1650 hrs