Tourists may be urged to boycott Maldives over ex-president's jail term.

UN says Mohamed Nasheed did not receive a fair trial, and Amal Clooney – representing his wife – refused to exclude a boycott
Tourists could be urged to boycott Indian Ocean resorts on the Maldives following a scathing United Nations ruling condemning the illegal imprisonment of its former president, Mohamed Nasheed.

A decision by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), released on Monday, concluded that Nasheed, who in March was sentenced to 13 years in prison after being found guilty of terrorism, “did not receive a fair trial”.

The latest twist in the protracted legal battle, pitting barrister Amal Clooneyagainst Cherie Booth QC, has focused international attention on the islands’ increasingly controversial human rights record.

Clooney, of Doughty Street Chambers in London, is working pro-bono along with other lawyers for Nasheed’s wife, Laila Ali, in an attempt to win the onetime journalist his freedom.

Booth, the wife of the former Labour prime minister Tony Blair, is the founder of Omnia Strategy, which has been advising the Maldives government currently headed by president Abdulla Yameen. Omnia describes itself as “a pioneering international law firm that provides strategic counsel to governments, corporates & private clients”.

In its report, adopted by the UN Human Rights Council last month, the WGAD said that the detention of Nasheed was “arbitrary”. It urged the government in the capital, Male, to free him “without delay”.

His lawyers – Clooney, Ben Emmerson QC, and the prominent US attorney Jared Genser – are calling for “targeted sanctions” against the Maldives government if it continues “to flout its international legal commitments”.

Asked whether tourists who visit the Maldives, many on their honeymoon, should boycott the country’s tourist attractions, Clooney said: “If we get to a situation where nothing is working and the government keeps dragging its heels, it’s something we wouldn’t exclude.”

Genser added: “Nasheed is not yet taking a position on whether there should be a tourist boycott. Everyone will have to make a personal decision about whether they want to travel to a country that is so beautiful yet abuses human rights.