Lawyers of jailed former president Mohamed Nasheed sought Monday a
motion in a bid to ensure that the government follows a recent ruling by
a United Nations panel in the opposition leader's favour.
The government has faced mounting international pressure to release
Nasheed whose incarceration has been ruled as illegal by a UN panel.
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.
At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Nasheed’s attorney Ibrahim Riffath said the constitution requires the government to consider international accords in upholding human rights. Civil Court has been asked to order the home ministry and the correctional service to enforce the UN panel ruling and release Nasheed, he added.
“We’re trying to get solutions through the judicial process, as requested by President [Abdulla] Yameen [Abdul Gayoom],” Riffath said, at the press conference held at the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) office in capital Male.
According to the former solicitor general, the case was lodged at the court even before, but it was rejected saying that Nasheed had not first filed a formal complaint with the correctional service.
“[When we filed the complaint], corrections said Nasheed is serving a prison sentence issued by a court of law and that the service is not authorised to overturn a court ruling. We’ve now filed the case again with that reply,” he said.
The government has on multiple occasions rejected the UN panel ruling. It had said that it would only abide by rulings delivered local courts.
Meanwhile, Nasheed’s lawyers have also filed another case at the High Court in a bid to overturn a previous Criminal Court decision to reject a case that sought to declare as unlawful the government’s move to transfer their client back to prison from house arrest.
Nasheed was transferred to house arrest in July due to health reasons, but late August he was taken back to prison. The opposition accused the government of backtracking on its decision to commute the ex-president’s sentence.
Nasheed’s legal team had also claimed that a document was hand delivered by a correctional service officer to Nasheed which had “officially” commuted his sentence to house arrest.
The government has vehemently denied the document’s existence and launched a police investigation to determine its authenticity.
The family had sent the document abroad for an independent forensic analysis which had found the document to be authentic, lawyers had said.
Nasheed's legal team has continued to maintain that the document was authentic.
The decision by Nasheed to seek judicial remedies follows a similar decision last week to appeal his prison sentence.
Nasheed filed for appeal his prison sentence on Sunday after backtracking on his decision to not appeal his sentence by opting to go to the Supreme Court instead.
In his appeal, Nasheed had sought a lesser penalty under the new penal code that came into effect in November. The Supreme Court had also been asked to nullify the charges lodged against him in the lower court and the subsequent sentence.
Meanwhile, the government has faced mounting international pressure to release Nasheed.
In the latest setback for the government, European parliament passed a resolution Thursday condemning the human rights abuses of President Yameen, and calling for targeted sanctions to be imposed on his officials and supporters in the business community.
The government, however, quickly moved to dismiss the resolution as inappropriate and irresponsible.
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.
At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Nasheed’s attorney Ibrahim Riffath said the constitution requires the government to consider international accords in upholding human rights. Civil Court has been asked to order the home ministry and the correctional service to enforce the UN panel ruling and release Nasheed, he added.
“We’re trying to get solutions through the judicial process, as requested by President [Abdulla] Yameen [Abdul Gayoom],” Riffath said, at the press conference held at the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) office in capital Male.
According to the former solicitor general, the case was lodged at the court even before, but it was rejected saying that Nasheed had not first filed a formal complaint with the correctional service.
“[When we filed the complaint], corrections said Nasheed is serving a prison sentence issued by a court of law and that the service is not authorised to overturn a court ruling. We’ve now filed the case again with that reply,” he said.
The government has on multiple occasions rejected the UN panel ruling. It had said that it would only abide by rulings delivered local courts.
Meanwhile, Nasheed’s lawyers have also filed another case at the High Court in a bid to overturn a previous Criminal Court decision to reject a case that sought to declare as unlawful the government’s move to transfer their client back to prison from house arrest.
Nasheed was transferred to house arrest in July due to health reasons, but late August he was taken back to prison. The opposition accused the government of backtracking on its decision to commute the ex-president’s sentence.
Nasheed’s legal team had also claimed that a document was hand delivered by a correctional service officer to Nasheed which had “officially” commuted his sentence to house arrest.
The government has vehemently denied the document’s existence and launched a police investigation to determine its authenticity.
The family had sent the document abroad for an independent forensic analysis which had found the document to be authentic, lawyers had said.
Nasheed's legal team has continued to maintain that the document was authentic.
The decision by Nasheed to seek judicial remedies follows a similar decision last week to appeal his prison sentence.
Nasheed filed for appeal his prison sentence on Sunday after backtracking on his decision to not appeal his sentence by opting to go to the Supreme Court instead.
In his appeal, Nasheed had sought a lesser penalty under the new penal code that came into effect in November. The Supreme Court had also been asked to nullify the charges lodged against him in the lower court and the subsequent sentence.
Meanwhile, the government has faced mounting international pressure to release Nasheed.
In the latest setback for the government, European parliament passed a resolution Thursday condemning the human rights abuses of President Yameen, and calling for targeted sanctions to be imposed on his officials and supporters in the business community.
The government, however, quickly moved to dismiss the resolution as inappropriate and irresponsible.
source- http://www.haveeru.com.mv/news/65025
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