Parliament Speaker and former President Mohamed Nasheed has vowed to join the protests for the release of former President Abdulla Yameen who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for bribery and money laundering.
Speaking in Fuvahmulah at a campaign rally of Democrats' presidential candidate Ilyas Labeeb, Nasheed expressed concern over the government's treatment of the jailed opposition leader.
“We all know that there are 273 [people] involved in the MMPRC corruption. But when only one person is arrested and kept in jail for five years, we cannot accept that as justice,” Nasheed said.
"President Yameen should be released immediately."
Nasheed added that he had good experience in getting people out of jail and had invented a system for that during his time as a senior member of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).
“I assure my friendly PPM members that President Yameen will not be in jail for long, hopefully,” Nasheed said.
He made several pledges to members of the largest opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM). Nasheed said he would talk to international bodies and several lawyers would visit the country to defend Yameen and free him.
While Nasheed spoke in Yameen's defense on Tuesday night, the pair had long been political rivals. In the presidential election 10 years ago, Nasheed lost to Yameen and was later jailed during the Yameen administration.
