Mohamed Nasheed GCSK is a Maldivian politician and activist currently serving as the 19th speaker of the People's Majlis since May 2019.
55 Facts About Mohamed Nasheed
2.
Mohamed Nasheed is the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and the only president to resign from office.
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Mohamed Nasheed 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.
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On 7 February 2012, Mohamed Nasheed resigned amidst a political crisis.
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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.
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Mohamed Nasheed characterised the circumstances of his resignation as a coup d'etat, and that he was forced out of office.
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In March 2015, Mohamed 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.
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Mohamed 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.
9.
Mohamed Nasheed sustained serious injuries after an IED bomb that was stuffed with bearing balls as shrapnel was detonated near his home.
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Mohamed Nasheed was treated in an intensive care unit in Germany, after undergoing multiple emergency surgeries.
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Mohamed Nasheed was born in Male, Maldives, to a middle-class family.
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Mohamed Nasheed attended Majeediyya School in Maldives from 1971 and 1981.
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Mohamed Nasheed 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.
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Straight after his GCE A Levels, Mohamed Nasheed moved north to Liverpool, where he spent the next three years reading maritime studies at Liverpool Polytechnic, before graduating in 1989.
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Mohamed 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.
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Mohamed Nasheed was named an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience in 1991.
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Mohamed Nasheed 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.
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Mohamed Nasheed was later alleged by the government to have withheld information about a bombing plot.
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Mohamed Nasheed was released in June 1993, then re-arrested in 1994 and 1995.
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In September 2003 Mohamed Nasheed requested that a doctor view the body of Hassan Evan Naseem, a 19-year-old prisoner who had died in Maafushi Jail while serving a term for drug possession.
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Mohamed Nasheed was recognised as a political refugee by the British government in 2004.
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Mohamed Nasheed made several trips to the atolls and neighbouring countries on behalf of the party.
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On 12 August 2005 Mohamed Nasheed was arrested again when he was sitting in the center of the Republican Square, with supporters of MDP, to mark the second anniversary of Black Friday.
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Mohamed Nasheed's arrest provoked civil unrest in Male and some other atolls.
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Mohamed Nasheed argued that the cost of the change would be no higher than what the Maldives already spends on energy.
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Three days later, Mohamed Nasheed appointed two new ministers and acting ministers for four more offices.
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Chief Justice Abdulla Mohamed Nasheed ordered his release, but according to the police his non-compliance with their on-going investigations against him led in turn to his being arrested by members of the Maldives National Defence Force.
28.
Military forces increasingly joined the opposition, and Mohamed Nasheed resigned that day.
29.
President Mohamed Nasheed then attempted to lead the protesters to the Republic Square.
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The Commonwealth supported Mohamed Nasheed's call for early elections, calling on both Mohamed Nasheed and Waheed to enter talks to arrange new polls before the year's end.
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Mohamed Nasheed ran for the Presidency again in the 2013 election, which was mired by controversy as voting was delayed three times.
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Mohamed Nasheed was detained overnight and then released on the condition that he would answer questions about his alleged abuse of presidential powers within 25 days.
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Mohamed Nasheed was reported to have taken refuge in the Indian High Commission office in Male in February 2013 after a Maldivian court issued an arrest warrant against him and ordered the police to detain him.
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On 13 March 2015, Nasheed was sentenced to thirteen years in Maafushi Prison for abducting Abdulla Mohamed.
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Mohamed Nasheed was charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act of Maldives.
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The ruling came four days after Mohamed Nasheed's lawyers quit in protest against what they called was a biased trial aimed at destroying his political career.
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Mohamed Nasheed was originally cleared of the charge, but a few days later, the prosecutor general had him re-charged and arrested under tough anti-terror laws.
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Mohamed Nasheed had earlier been charged with abuse of power but prosecutors last month filed more serious charges under the country's terrorism law.
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On 16 January 2016, Mohamed Nasheed, following foreign pressure, was granted permission to leave for the UK by the Maldivian Government to undergo a spinal surgery.
40.
Mohamed Nasheed contended that a state-owned company once led by Maldives President Abdulla Yameen sold nearly $300 million worth of oil to Myanmar's military dictatorship in the early 2000s; with nearly half the money disappearing.
41.
On 26 November 2018, the Supreme Court of the Maldives overturned Mohamed Nasheed's sentence, saying that he had been charged wrongfully and the case against him should have not gone to trial.
42.
On 28 May 2019, Mohamed Nasheed was elected as Speaker of the People's Majlis, the legislative body of the Maldives, with 67 votes in favour.
43.
Mohamed Nasheed had arranged for emergency clearance for the Sri Lanka Air Force flight carrying Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards.
44.
The intervention by Mohamed Nasheed was met with criticism from the Sri Lankan public.
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Mohamed Nasheed subsequently stated that Rajapaksa would not have resigned if he were still in Sri Lanka.
46.
On June 2022, Mohamed Nasheed announced that he would be running for the Maldivian Democratic Party's 2023 nomination for president, contesting the incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
47.
Mohamed Nasheed accuses the President of enacting policies that are contrary to the founding principles and ideology of the party.
48.
Mohamed Nasheed alleged that the President had removed more than 39,000 members from the party's membership register that were less likely to vote for him to potentially twist the election in his favor.
49.
On Thursday, 6 May 2021 at 8:39 pm MVT, Mohamed Nasheed was the target of an assassination attempt that wounded two of his bodyguards in addition to a British tourist and another bystander.
50.
Mohamed Nasheed underwent 16 hours of surgery for injuries to his head, chest, abdomen, and limbs, according to the hospital, and remained in a critical condition in intensive care.
51.
In May 2009 Mohamed Nasheed was presented with the Coral Cultivation Initiative Award by Huvafen Fushi Resort and Underwater Spa, Maldives in recognition of his active participation in cultivating coral in the resort's nursery as well as for his efforts in creating greater awareness on the impact of climate change in the Maldives.
52.
In September 2009 at the global premiere of the film The Age of Stupid, Mohamed Nasheed was presented with a "Not Stupid" Award for his efforts to tackle climate change and for the Maldives' announcement to become the first carbon-neutral country in the world.
53.
On Earth Day 2010, Mohamed Nasheed was awarded the United Nations' Champions of the Earth Award.
54.
Mohamed Nasheed received it at a gala event in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in conjunction with the B4E Business for the Environment Global Summit.
55.
On 28 June 2012, Mohamed Nasheed received the James Lawson Award from the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict at Tufts University in Massachusetts, US.