Lawyers hope for police help in commuting Maldives' jailed ex-pres' sentence

 

Hassan Latheef, who is part of Nasheed's legal team told reporters after meeting the newly appointed police chief Ahmed Areef, that there was hope that Nasheed can transferred to house arrest if police conducted a decent probe into the commutation document.

Nasheed, who leads opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), was sentenced to 13 years in prison in March after he was convicted of the arbitrary detention of Chief Criminal Judge Abdulla Mohamed while he was president.

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.

"I'm confident that if the police properly investigates this matter they will find that the document was sent to Nasheed by the government. This particular letter matches all other letters sent to president Nasheed from the corrections service," Latheef told reporters outside the police headquarters.

The government has faced mounting international pressure to release Nasheed whose incarceration has been ruled as illegal by a UN panel.

source-  http://www.haveeru.com.mv/news/64837