GENEVA, September 24, 2015 – Freedom Now, a U.S. and U.K.-based NGO that works to free prisoners of conscience, invited Meera Laila Nasheed, age 18, to appear on Thursday September 24th at 5 pm local time before the UN Human Rights Council about her father, Mohamed Nasheed, a prisoner of conscience and the former President of the Maldives. The Human Rights Council consists of 47 Member States of the United Nations elected by the UN General Assembly.

Ms. Nasheed will speak about the politically motivated trial of her father, which was replete with due process violations. She will emphasize his hope that the Maldivian government will uphold the impending findings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has cited the “flagrant irregularities” of the trial, describing it as “a rushed process that appears to contravene the Maldives’ own laws and practices and international fair trial standards in a number of respects.” Amnesty International has called former President Nasheed’s trial a “travesty of justice.”

The remarks will be available live and then archived at webtv.un.org.