Government accused of hindering Nasheed’s Supreme Court appeal
The government’s refusal to allow lawyers to handover appeal documents to Nasheed directly constitutes a breach of lawyer-client protocol, as the government may intercept legally privileged communications, lawyers have said.
19 Dec 2015, 9:00 AM
Lawyers representing jailed former President Mohamed Nasheed are working round the clock to file an appeal of his terrorism conviction at the Supreme Court by Sunday.
But the government, which has long-insisted Nasheed should exhaust all domestic appeal processes, is now hindering the appeal by barring lawyers from directly handing over legal documents to Nasheed’s hands for private review, lawyers said on Friday.
The Maldives Correctional Services says documents can only be handed to inmates via its head offices in Malé. But lawyers said that the rule breaches lawyer-client protocol as the government may intercept legally privileged communications, thereby endangering Nasheed’s right to fair trial.
“These documents contain our arguments, our strategy. We have no confidence in the MCS, if documents are handed to them, in the three days before they hand over to President Nasheed, they may photocopy the documents,” lawyer Hisaan Hussain told the press on Friday.
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