Former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed (File Photo: AP)
Addressing the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, Maldives ex-President Mohammed Nasheed’s daughter said that he was arrested on the fabricated charges of terrorism and his safety situation concerns family.
Talking about her father Meera Laila Nasheed, 18, said, “He is tenacious and brilliant who risked majority of his life trying to establish basic human rights in the country.”
She expressed her hope that his father will return home soon while she called him her best friend whose gentle spirit was being dearly missed.
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Meera was invited by a US and UK based NGO, namely Freedom Now to address the UN Human Rights Council about her father.
The Human Rights Council consists of 47 Member States of the United Nations elected by the UN General Assembly.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has cited the “flagrant irregularities” of the trial, describing it as “a rushed process that appears to contravene the Maldives’ own laws and practices and international fair trial standards in a number of respects.” Amnesty International has called former President Nasheed’s trial a “travesty of justice.”
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Meanwhile, Amal Clooney, Ben Emmerson and Jared Genser, the international counsel for former President Nasheed, have called for targeted international sanctions against Maldives government and officials. They also cited several precedents to support their call to impose such sanctions if Maldives’ government continues to flout its international legal commitments.
The lawyers also said that President Nasheed’s case is not about one individual. “Nasheed’s conviction is emblematic of a broader, brutal crackdown on democracy and human rights involving not only the former President, but also large parts of the population.”