The "manipulated" trials of the assassination attempt on the president and the forged warrant to arrest the president are an affront to justice, former president Mohamed Nasheed said Saturday.
The ex-president who recently was granted political asylum in the United Kingdom said on Twitter that the trumped up charges and the political manipulations in the trials of Magistrate Ahmed Nihan, former vice president Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor and former chief prosecutor Muhuthaz Muhusin are an "affront to justice."
Adheeb was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of orchestrating a blast aboard the presidential speedboat in September last year which has now been confirmed by authorities as an attempt to kill the president.
His sentence on Thursday was the second terrorism conviction in as many days after he received 10 years for possessing a handgun during a mass opposition protest last year.
Former prosecutor general Muhuthaz Muhsin and chief magistrate of the Alif Dhaal Atoll Maamigili Magistrate Court Ahmed Nihan both received 17 year prison sentences for forging a warrant to arrest president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom in February.
Nasheed himself is serving jail sentence over the arbitrary arrest and subsequent detention of a sitting judge while he was president before he was allowed to leave to the UK for medical treatment in an internationally brokered deal in January.
The former president's criticism over the recent high profile verdicts came after the newly formed united opposition coalition had alleged that the rushed trial and subsequent conviction of Adheeb was ordered directly by president Yameen.
Maldives United Opposition had said the sudden verdict was delivered after chief criminal judge Abdul Baree Yoosuf took charge of the trial on orders of the president.
The MUO formed by the key opposition figures currently living in exile in the United Kingdom said the trial further gave weight to the mounting concerns over the judiciary's independence in the Maldives.
Adheeb is also part of the opposition coalition which is being headed by his predecessor Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed.
Five rival opposition groups had announced a united front to remove President Yameen from office, urging supporters to bridge differences to restore democracy.
Nasheed, Adhaalath Party Leader Sheikh Imran Abdulla, and former Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim will serve as advisors.
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