Former president Mohamed Nasheed resigned four years into his presidency amid public protests over his order to arrest a top judge. (File) Former president Mohamed Nasheed resigned four years into his presidency amid public protests over his order to arrest a top judge. (File)

Former president of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed Wednesday announced that he would return to the Island nation, over two years after he was exiled. Nasheed, the leader of the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party, made the announcement days after MDP leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih was elected President. Nasheed, who was the first democratically-elected president of Maldives, has been residing in Colombo, Sri Lanka and in the UK.

Nasheed left the Maldives in 2015 after a criminal court convicted him on a terrorism charge and sentenced him to 13 years in prison. He had announced that he would contest the 2018 presidential elections, but pulled out after the national election commission ruled that it was illegal.

If we at this juncture try to find an amicable arrangement for my freedom with the now defunct Maldives Supreme Court, it will not further our ambitions for judicial reform in the Maldives. I will go to the Maldives on 01 November, come what may — Mohamed Nasheed (@MohamedNasheed) October 3, 2018

Nasheed was elected president in 2008, but was forced to resign in 2012, months before he left the country. In February this year, the Supreme Court ordered the immediate release of Nasheed and eight other opposition leaders, after finding that their trials had violated the constitution and international law. The top court said prosexutors and judges had been influenced “to conduct politically motivated investigations” into the allegations levelled against them. It ordered a fresh investigation and trials.

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