Former defence minister Mohamed Nazim and religiously conservative Adhaalath Party leader Sheikh Imran Abdulla was taken back to prison on Friday after the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Maldives correctional service had said the duo were transferred to house arrest till the end of Ramadan, and that they will be taken back to prison after the holy month was over.
Nazim was sentenced to 11 years in prison after he was convicted of weapons possession after police found a hand gun in his residence.
The religious conservative party’s leader was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment on terrorism charges for inciting violence during a major opposition protest held in May 2015.
Imran and Nazim had been under house arrest for the best part of last year with prison officials claiming that their prison cells in Asseyri Prison were being “repaired”.
Both political leaders have exhausted their appeal process and are currently serving their sentences.
In Nazim’s case, the Supreme Court had 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.
The opposition heavily criticized the incarceration of the two politicians, claiming that they were jailed on trumped up charges for political gains.
