Politics

Lawyers step up campaign for Nasheed’s release, call for sanctions

Jared Genser, Amal Clooney, and Nasheed’s wife, Laila Ali, briefed the British press yesterday on the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s (WGAD) opinion, which said the opposition leader’s conviction in March was politically motivated and breached international law. The heavyweight lawyers are seeking “travel bans and targeted financial sanctions against Maldivian government officials who have been implicated in serious human rights abuses.”

06 Oct 2015, 9:00 AM
After a UN rights panel declared his imprisonment arbitrary, former President Mohamed Nasheed’s high-profile international lawyers have launched a campaign seeking targeted sanctions against officials of the Maldivian state.
“Today we’re calling for governments around the world to impose travel bans and targeted financial sanctions against Maldivian government officials who have been implicated in serious human rights abuses,” Jared Genser told the press in London.
Genser, Amal Clooney, and Nasheed’s wife, Laila Ali, briefed the British press yesterday on the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s (WGAD) opinion, which said the opposition leader’s conviction in March was politically motivated and violated international law.
Despite engaging with the UN process and submitting a 111-page response, the government last week called the judgment “flawed and premature” and said it “will not be made to act on the basis of a non-binding opinion.”

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