{"id":1155,"date":"2015-02-25T15:17:02","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T23:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/?p=6493"},"modified":"2016-01-23T00:39:15","modified_gmt":"2016-01-23T00:39:15","slug":"island-president-update-former-maldives-president-arrested","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/island-president-update-former-maldives-president-arrested\/","title":{"rendered":"Island President Updates: Former Maldives President Arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former president Nasheed arrested in Male, Maldives<\/p><\/div>\n

Update\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(1\/18\/16): Nasheed was allowed to leave prison and the Maldives in order to get needed surgery in Britain<\/a>. But apparently he’s been asked to return to Maldives once recovered to serve the rest of his sentence.<\/p>\n

Update<\/strong><\/em> (4\/30\/15): Amal Clooney writes an impassioned plea in the Guardian<\/em>: “Release Mohamed Nasheed \u2013 an innocent man and the Maldives\u2019 great hope<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

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On Sunday (February 22), former president Mohamed Nasheed was arrested in the Maldives<\/a>, refused bail by the court<\/a>, and faces 10-15 years in prison. Since his arrest he\u00a0was reportedly\u00a0injured by the police and denied legal representation. He was brought into custody under an anti-terror law<\/a>, accused of using the military to arrest a senior judge during his time in office.\u00a0The first democratically elected president of the Maldives, President Nasheed was the subject of the Independent Lens<\/em> documentary The Island President<\/em><\/a> (PBS, 2013), which won a\u00a0Toronto International Film Festival People’s Choice Award and the International Documentary Association Pare Lorentz Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Anthony Kaufman on Indiewire<\/em> notes, the documentary community is rallying around Nasheed<\/a>, and there’s even a\u00a0Twitter hashtag\u00a0(#FreeNasheedNow<\/a>) to publicize his situation and mobilize\u00a0support.<\/p>\n

“We are concerned at recent developments in the Maldives, including the arrest and manhandling of former president Nasheed,” the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement issued in New Delhi.<\/p>\n

More from Kaufman: “Officials from the U.S., United Nations, India and Canada have condemned the arrest. But as The Island President<\/em> showed so effectively and amusingly, it’s hard to get noticed when you’re a small and slowly disappearing island nation of some 350,000 people. But what made Nasheed such a great film character and a great individual is that he managed to make waves that went beyond his country’s borders.”<\/p>\n

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Video of police dragging Nasheed to court:<\/p>\n