Mohamed Nasheed

Mohamed Nasheed GCSK (މުހައްމަދު ނަޝީދު; born 17 May 1967), also known as Anni (Dhivehi: އަންނި), is a Maldivian politician and activist who served as president of the Maldives from 2008 until his resignation in 2012.

He attended Majeediyya School in Maldives from 1971 and 1981.

He then studied at the Overseas School of Colombo in Sri Lanka from 1981 and 1982, and August 1982, he moved to England, where he completed his secondary education at Dauntsey's School in Wiltshire.

Straight after his GCE A Levels, Nasheed moved north to Liverpool, where he spent the next three years reading maritime studies at Liverpool Polytechnic, before graduating in 1989.

His aunt Lathee was the first Maldivian to pass University of Cambridge examinations in English; she later worked as an expatriate in New Zealand.

Lathee's daughter Ayesha Verrall is a member of the New Zealand Parliament.

She was also the Minister overseeing the latter stages of New Zealand's COVID-19 Response.

Nasheed was held in prison for an article in the political magazine Sangu, published in 1991, alleging the government had rigged the 1989 general election.

He was named an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience in 1991.

He has stated that he was tortured while in detention, including being chained to a chair outside for 12 days and forced to eat food containing crushed glass.

He was later alleged by the government to have withheld information about a bombing plot.

On 8 April 1992, he was sentenced to three years in prison on that charge.

He was released in June 1993, then re-arrested in 1994 and 1995.

In 1996 he was sentenced to two years imprisonment for an article he had written about the 1993 and 1994 Maldivian elections, and was again designated a prisoner of conscience.

He was first elected to Parliament in 1999 but was later forced to leave office, and was arrested and imprisoned several times during his early career.

His arrest in 2005 prompted civil unrest.

In the first round of the 2008 presidential election, he won 25% of the votes and later defeated incumbent President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had governed the Maldives as president for 30 continuous years.

As President, Nasheed played a role in drawing international attention to the threat of climate change to the Maldives.

On 7 February 2012, Nasheed resigned amidst a political crisis.

Protests by the opposition had begun after Nasheed ordered the arrest of the Chief Judge of the Criminal Court Abdulla Mohamed, which were later joined by police forces who refused to carry out the order.

Nasheed characterised the circumstances of his resignation as a coup d'état, and that he was forced out of office.

His successor, Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, disputed this, saying the process was constitutional, and created a Commission of National Inquiry to investigate.

The Commission of National Inquiry, overseen by the United Nations and the Commonwealth of Nations, reported that there was no evidence to support Nasheed's version of events.

Nasheed unsuccessfully ran for the presidency again in 2013.

In March 2015, Nasheed was convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act of Maldives for ordering the Criminal Court Judge's arrest while president, and was sentenced to 13 years at Maafushi Prison.

Amnesty International described the conviction as "politically motivated", and the United States Department of State expressed concern at "apparent lack of appropriate criminal procedures during the trial".

In 2016, he was given asylum in the United Kingdom, where he had gone for medical treatment.

In November 2018, the Supreme Court of the Maldives overturned his conviction.

Nasheed renounced his plans to contest the 2018 presidential election, citing legal obstacles and criticising the Election Commission's decision to reject his victory in a party primary poll.

After his childhood best friend, relative, and party's candidate Ibrahim Solih won the election, Nasheed returned to the Maldives, and won the seat for Machangolhi Medhu Dhaairaa constituency in parliamentary elections the following year, subsequently taking office as Speaker of Parliament.

On 6 May 2021, an assassination attempt was carried out against Nasheed near his home while he was getting into his car.

He sustained serious injuries after an IED bomb that was stuffed with bearing balls as shrapnel was detonated near his home.

He was treated in an intensive care unit in Germany, after undergoing multiple emergency surgeries.

Maldivian authorities suspect it to be a terrorist attack by religious extremists.

Three suspects were arrested.

Nasheed was born in Malé, Maldives, to a middle-class family.

A founding member of the Maldivian Democratic Party, he subsequently served as the 19th speaker of the People's Majlis from May 2019 until his resignation in November 2023.

He is the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and the only president to resign from office.

He is currently a member of The Democrats.

Born in Malé, Nasheed was educated overseas before returning to the Maldives and becoming involved in political activism.