MALE/GENEVA (Reuters) - A senior U.N. human rights official said on Friday she had visited jailed former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed for two hours in detention and urged the government to take action on his flawed trial.
"We kind of started to get signals that even the government recognises that something went wrong with the process of the trial," Mona Rishmawi, chief of the rule of law, equality and non-discrimination branch of the U.N. Human Rights Office, told a regular U.N. briefing.
"We would like to see this translate into concrete political action and see something happening in this case... What is very clear is that the president still has clemency powers."
She was speaking as supporters of the jailed former president took to the tropical island's streets to call for his release.
Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected leader, was imprisoned in March for his role in ordering the arrest of a senior judge, after a trial that the U.N. high commissioner for human rights said was marked by "flagrant irregularities".
The country is increasingly polarised between Nasheed's supporters and those who back current President Abdulla Yameen, whose half-brother lost power to Nasheed in 2008, ending 30 years of authoritarian rule.
Clashes broke out in February in the run-up to Nasheed's sentencing, although small-scale protests have since remained largely peaceful.
Rishmawi said Nasheed's trial had been politically motivated and the Maldives legal system was "totally incomplete", with makeshift rules and judges wielding "incredible discretionary powers".
"What we saw is that the rules have been really changed to lead to a certain result," she said.
She said people in prison always go through "ups and downs" but when she met Nasheed in a "temporary location" he was thoughtful as well as cracking jokes.
"But I wouldn't say he was relaxed. He knew he was facing 13 years in prison and he knew that his situation is really really difficult and he worried a lot about his safety."
She said she had warned the government to be "extremely careful" to ensure Nasheed's safety in the maximum security prison where he was moved to shortly after Rishmawi met him during her April 20-23 trip.
On Thursday, the European Parliament demanded an "immediate end" to the political use of justice, and called on member states to publish travel warnings about the government's human rights record to pressure the tourist industry, which accounts for about a third of the Maldives' economy.