Former prisoner of conscience wins Maldives election
Posted: November 20, 2008
Mohamed Nasheed shakes hands with supporters the day after winning the Maldivian presidential election.
LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/
AFP/Getty Images
A former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience was elected president of the Maldives on October 29, 2008.
Mohamed Nasheed replaced President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who had held on to power for 30 years.
Nasheed spent many years in prison under the previous regime. Throughout the 1990s, he was harassed, arrested and detained on many occasions.
Amnesty declared him a prisoner of conscience in 1991 after he was imprisoned for contributing to a political magazine.
In March 2002, he was “expelled” from parliament after he lost his appeal against a conviction for the theft of a few children’s exercise books at an auction. He was banished to a remote island.
Amnesty International is now urging Mohamed Nasheed to make human rights a central part of his presidency.