The Sri Lankan national arrested on charges of attempting to assassinate former president Abdulla Yameen has said he was tortured in incarceration.

In a brief interview to RaajjeMV, Lahiru Madushanka said that his time in detention was ‘so bad’ and confirmed reports that he was tortured.

Madushanka denounced the charges against him as complete lies and said that his time in prison was the ‘worst experience of his life', an absolute nightmare’.

Officials from Sri Lanka, present at the time of his release from the Malé Prison, had cut short the interview, highlighting that Madushanka has been through a difficult ordeal and that he needs time to settle before providing more details to the press.

A Maldivian court had dismissed the charges against him on grounds of insufficient evidence; Madushanka has been in detained since 2015.

Madushanka, who worked as a driver in Sri Lanka’s capital city, was in the Maldives on ‘business’, his family has said. The family and his lawyer have claimed gross violation of his right to legal representation and a fair trial.

The alleged conspiracy to assassinate President Yameen, who lost his bid for re-election, reportedly involved now detained former vice president Ahmed Adeeb as well.