Male:
The Maldives' first elected President said he did not expect a fair hearing as he went on trial Monday in a case that could see him jailed or banished to a remote island and barred from future elections.
Nearly eight months after he was toppled as leader of the Indian Ocean archipelago, Mohamed Nasheed is due to appear in the dock over accusations that he abused his power by ordering the arrest of a senior judge during his tenure.
The arrest fuelled already simmering anti-government protests which culminated in a police mutiny in February and led to Mr Nasheed's deputy being installed as president.
The climate change campaigner, who was tortured during previous stints in jail for his political activism, insists that he was threatened by armed rebel officers and forced to announce his resignation on television.
"The judiciary in the Maldives is so deeply politicised, there is no chance of a fair trial, particularly in a case as political as this," Mr Nasheed told AFP by email over the weekend ahead of the first hearing.
The 45-year-old became leader after the Maldives held their first democratic elections in 2008 following three decades of autocratic rule by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
The country is made up of 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered across the equator and is better known as a honeymoon hotspot rather than a hotbed of political activism.
A conviction could see Mr Nasheed handed a jail term of up to three years in prison or banishment to an small islet, which would disqualify him from running for office.
Criminals in the Maldives were often banished to remote uninhabited islets in the past and forced to fend for themselves. Nowadays they are more frequently sent to the notorious Maafushi prison on a small islet south of the capital Male.
The latest case centres around Mr Nasheed's decision in January to send the military to arrest the chief judge of the criminal court, Abdullah Mohamed, on charges of corruption, misconduct and favouring then-opposition figures.
Mr Nasheed justified the arrest saying that the judicial service commission had failed to take action against the judge, who had a string of allegations against him.
Apart from the criminal case, Mr Nasheed now faces two defamation suits filed against him by Police Commissioner Abdulla Riyaz and by Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim.
A judge indefinitely postponed the first case on Sunday at the request of Riyaz, while the second case is due to be called on Tuesday.
New President Mohamed Waheed has rejected claims that Mr Nasheed was forced into resigning -- an international investigation also rejected the idea of a "coup" -- and rebuffs suggestions the legal cases are a political vendetta.
"The government of Maldives refutes any allegations that this trial is politically motivated," Presidential spokesman Abbas Riza told AFP.
"On the contrary, the former president has been found in breach of the powers vested in his office of the Presidency on several occasions."
The capital island Male was calm on Monday ahead of the opening of the trial around 05:30 pm local time (1200 GMT) and residents went about their day-to-day work as usual.
There were large demonstrations in the capital on previous occasions when Nasheed was summoned to the police to be questioned about ordering the arrest of the judge Mohamed.
Mr Nasheed said that he had failed during his three and a half years in office to reform the judiciary which he said still owed its allegiance to Gayoom who remains a powerful political player.
"It was still made up of the same old judges hand-picked by Gayoom many years ago. The judges were grossly under qualified -- many had only completed primary schooling," he told AFP.
"Many had criminal records, many were corrupt and nearly all remain loyal to Gayoom. These same judges are still, for the most part, in place today and there is precious little we could do to change that situation."
The new government secured a warrant for Nasheed's arrest shortly after his downfall, but it was not executed due to intense international pressure.
The authorities filed charges against him in July.
Mr Nasheed was never formally arrested, but last week a court ordered him to remain in the one-square mile (2.6 square kilometres) capital island Male until the case against him is concluded.