Opposition coalition’s Presidential candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has said that Member of Parliament for Dhiggaru constituency Ahmed Faris Maumoon remaining behind bars is against the hopes of the people for the democratic government they sought.

Following the one-year mark following MP Faris’s incarceration, Solih took to twitter on Wednesday, writing that the parliamentarian remains behind bars for an unwarranted conviction. Solih, in his tweet typed out in Dhivehi, wrote that the incarceration of Faris goes against the people’s expectations of the democratic system they hoped for.

Solih goes on to call for Faris’s immediate release in his tweet.

The lawmaker was arrested in July 2017 following accusations of attempting to overthrow the government of his uncle incumbent President Abdulla Yameen by offering bribes to fellow parliamentarians. While it has been a year since his incarceration, the strongest evidence against him, presented by the state was the parliamentarian he had allegedly bribed. However, the parliamentarian had since testified in Faris’s defense in court following which the trial had been halted and remains buried since then.

The lawmaker has since been convicted with a prison sentence of four months and 24 days in prison after being found guilty of using the ruling Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) flag and logo at a joint opposition party conference.