A top United Nations (UN) rights panel Thursday ruled in favour of Maldives' former defence minister Mohamed Nazim calling on the government for his immediate release.
Nazim was sentenced to 11 years in prison after he was convicted of weapons possession after police found a hand gun in his residence.
However, neither his DNA nor fingerprints was found on the weapon.
The Supreme Court however, upheld the verdict of the High Court despite DNA recovered from the pistol that matched the DNA profile of former vice president Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor, who is currently serving 33 years for multiple accounts of terrorism and graft.
Amnesty International had petitioned the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of Nazim’s case, seeking a judgment declaring his imprisonment illegal.
In its report released on Thursday, the UNWGAD said it had found serious due process violations
which, taken together, demonstrate that Nazim had not received a fair trial.
The report noted that the government had failed to give a sufficient explanation to the Adheeb's fingerprints found on the weapon, pointing to the notion that it had in fact been planted.
UNWGAD also expressed concern over the lack of time provided to Nazim to prepare his defence, the limits placed defence witnesses and on his cross-examination of prosecution witnesses by the trial court and the High Court.
"Taking into account all the circumstances of the case, the Working Group considers that an adequate remedy would be to release Col. Nazim immediately and accord him an enforceable right to reparations, in accordance with international law," the report read.
The UN panel has also given the government six months to provide it with information on action taken in follow-up to the panel's recommendations which includes Nazim's release.
