File photo of Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed (Agence France-Presse)
The Maldives said today it would appeal the conviction of former president and opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed, who was jailed for 13 years in March after a trial the UN described as "vastly unfair".
"The prosecutor-general of the Maldives has decided to appeal the case of former president Mohamed Nasheed," the government said in a statement.
It cited "procedural irregularities" in his trial, including "the violation of some fundamental rights and inadequate time to prepare his defence".
President Abdulla Yameen has faced a chorus of international criticism over the jailing of Nasheed, the first democratically elected leader of the honeymoon islands, on charges of terrorism.
US Secretary of State John Kerry warned in May that democracy was under threat, saying Nasheed had been "imprisoned without due process" and urging a rethink.
And an international team of lawyers, including London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has petitioned the United Nations over Nasheed's controversial jailing.
The image of the Maldives as an upmarket tourist destination has been dented by political unrest since Nasheed lost power in 2012.
Nasheed, a climate change activist who was imprisoned during the three-decade rule of former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, became the archipelago's first democratically elected leader in 2008.
He was toppled in February 2012 after a mutiny by police and troops that followed weeks of protests over the arrest of a top judge who had been appointed by Gayoom.
Nasheed had ordered the arrest, which formed the centre-piece of his prosecution.
Yameen, the half brother of Gayoom, controversially beat Nasheed in an election run-off in late 2013 despite trailing in the first round.
In May Nasheed's lawyer filed a petition with the UN arguing his detention was illegal and a violation of international law.
The appeal to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Geneva came as Nasheed's wife Laila Ali visited Washington to lobby the White House, State Department and Congress.
The Maldives government had always insisted he had received a fair trial.
But last month, Nasheed was moved out of his prison cell and confined to house arrest while he received medical treatment, in what some saw as a possible sign of softening towards him.