United Nations Human Rights Committee rules in favor of Former President Mohamed Nasheed, firmly advocating Nasheed's right to stand for office, including in a presidential election later this year, according to Reuters.
The panel of independent experts tasked with overseeing governments’ compliance with the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, declared that Nasheed’s conviction on terrorism charges was based on vague laws, contained serious flaws and violated his right to a fair trial.
Committee member Sarah Cleveland said in a statement delivered to Reuters, that the U.N.'s stance remains resolute in that political rights should be suspended or restricted only in exceptional circumstances and under certain conditions.
"Judicial proceedings that violate the right to fair trial can render the resulting restriction of political rights arbitrary,"said Cleveland.
The committee said it wanted information from the Maldives within 180 days about measures taken to take its views into account, stating that those measures should also be disseminated broadly in the official languages of Maldives.
Nasheed is currently facing a sentence of 13 years on terrorism charges and has been living in the UK under political asylum. He has since been disqualified from running in presidential elections for a period of 16 years.
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