The United States, India and rights groups said yesterday they were troubled by the trial of former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison after being found guilty of terrorism for ordering the arrest of a judge. The verdict on Friday was the latest chapter in three turbulent years in the Indian Ocean archipelago. Nasheed, the country’s first democratically elected leader, was ousted in disputed circumstances, narrowly defeated in a controversial election and then arrested last month under new charges of terrorism.
“The prosecution’s evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that Nasheed ordered the chief judge’s arrest or forceful abduction and detention on Girifushi island,” Judge Abdulla Didi said in the court in the capital, Male.