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Maldives court upholds Nasheed’s jail sentence

Nasheed was sentenced in March 2015 after he was convicted on a terror-related charge which the United Nations said was politically motivated.

Facing intense international criticism, the government of the Maldives took the unusual step of appealing the conviction based on Nasheed’s claim that he did not have adequate time to prepare for the trial. But Judge Abdulla Saeed ruled on Monday that Nasheed, now leader of the opposition, had been given “sufficient time to present his defence”.

There was no immediate comment from Nasheed. He recently won political asylum in Britain, where he went for urgent medical treatment earlier this year.

Nasheed, a climate change activist who was also imprisoned during the three-decade rule of former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, was elected president in 2008.

He rose to international prominence when he hosted a cabinet meeting underwater to draw attention to the threat global warming posed to the atoll nation’s existence. 
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