Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney attended a court hearing Wednesday in the Maldives where state prosecutors have done a U-turn to appeal the conviction of former president Mohamed Nasheed.
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Shauna Aminath, an aide to Nasheed, told Reuters that Clooney will pursue legal and diplomatic means to secure his release.
Nasheed was sentenced to jail in March after a decrease courtroom discovered him responsible of terrorism for ordering the arrest of a senior decide when he was president in 2012.
Prosecutor General Muhthaz Muhusin informed Reuters that a High Court determination to assessment the case would assist Nasheed to attraction towards his sentence.
Her Washington based co-counsel Jared Genser was supposed to arrive on Tuesday. On Wednesday, she had a one-hour meeting with Maldivian Attorney General Mohamed Anil, but neither side released contents of their talks.
Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, back to camera, greets ormer president Mohamed Nasheed’s lawyers at the High Court in Male, Maldives, Wednesday, September 9, 2015.
“I’m here unfortunately at a time when the human rights situation and security situation is deteriorating day by day”, she said soon after landing on Monday.
Nasheed turned the nation’s first democratically elected president in 2008, ending 30 years of autocratic rule by the half-brother of present President Yameen Abdul Gayoom.
He also called for a review of criminal cases against several hundred of Nasheed’s party supporters who have been arrested in protests since May in the Maldives.
The resulting political fallout has damaged the island’s reputation as a honeymoon idyl, and brought crowds of protesters onto the streets of the capital Male.
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Clooney, who’s married to actor George Clooney, travelled to a jail on Maafushi Island the place Nasheed was taken on August 23 from home arrest.
