The now self-exiled former president Mohamed Nasheed has accepted a public apology from the police officer who had grabbed his collar during a crackdown on an opposition protest over a decade ago.
A year before Nasheed became the first democratically elected president of the archipelago, he had been among the protesters who had gathered near the cemetery after 28 year old Hussain Solah was found dead in the capital Male's harbour -- hours after he was released from police custody.
Police had cracked-down on angry protesters and Ali Shahid who was a police officer at the time had led Nasheed away by his collar during the ex-president's arrest.
Shahid who is now a close aide of jailed former vice president Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor took to Twitter to apologize for his actions in April 2007.
Shortly after Nasheed on Twitter accepted Shahid's apology adding that there was "nothing to be gained from holding grudges."
Nasheed was jailed on terror charges after he was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison over the arbitrary detention of a sitting judge while he was president.
He now lives in self imposed exile in the UK after he was allowed to leave to Britain on medical leave in an internationally brokered deal in January last year.
