Maldives Ex-Leader Arrives in UK After Prison Release

Maldives former president, who was imprisoned over a year ago after a trial condemned as "mockery," reunited Thursday with his wife and the human-rights lawyers advocating his release, NBC News reported. 

The current government of the island nation gave Mohamed Nasheed permission to travel to London for spinal surgery just days after attorney Amal Clooney, in an exclusive interview with NBC News, made the case for sanctions to win his freedom.

Clooney, who is married to activist actor-director George Clooney, and her co-counsel Jared Genser, greeted Nasheed, 48, at London's Heathrow Airport.

"I feel strange and uncertain. Just two days ago I was in solitary. And now I'm able to be free, at least right now," said Nasheed, who served three years as president after winning the Maldives' first democratic elections. He left office in what he says was a gunpoint coup and what the government claims was a voluntary resignation.

Contact Us