Former President Mohamed Nasheed has said that former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was sentenced in an unfair trial.

He said this in a tweet on Wednesday after the Criminal Court sentenced Gayoom, Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and Justice Ali Hameed to one year, seven months, and six days in prison for obstruction of justice.

In the tweet, Nasheed said that the first Maldivian president (Ameen Didi) was convicted while on a folding bed outside a military building and that the second president (Ibrahim Nasir) was exiled abroad for the rest of his life.

The third president (Gayoom) was put in jail for three months before being convicted in an unfair trial, he said, adding that Maldives needed to be changed.

Gayoom was sentenced on Wednesday with no legal representation present and his attorneys have said that the trial proceedings had violated the rules and regulations.

Nasheed is the Maldives’ fourth president. He is currently in self-exile after fleeing a 13-year prison sentence in a trial deemed unfair by the United Nations (UN) and the Supreme Court in a ruling on February 1.