[8][9] His successor, Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik,[10] disputed this, saying the process was constitutional, and created a Commission of National Inquiry to investigate.

In March 2015, Nasheed was convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act of Maldives for ordering the Criminal Court Judge's arrest while president,[13] and was sentenced to 13 years at Maafushi Prison.

[28] He has stated that he was tortured while in detention, including being chained to a chair outside for 12 days and forced to eat food containing crushed glass.

[33] In September 2003 Nasheed requested that a doctor view the body of Hassan Evan Naseem, a 19-year-old prisoner who had died in Maafushi Jail while serving a term for drug possession.

[29] In November 2003 Nasheed left the Maldives and joined Mohamed Latheef to help establish the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), in self-exile, in Sri Lanka and the UK.

[6] On 12 August 2005 Nasheed was arrested again when he was sitting in the center of the Republican Square, with supporters of MDP, to mark the second anniversary of Black Friday.

[48] With regard to the threat posed to the very low-lying islands by changes in sea level caused by global warming, in March 2009 Nasheed pledged to set an example by making the Maldives carbon-neutral within a decade by moving to wind and solar power.

[53] The ministers called on the President to investigate why certain MPs were blocking the government's work, citing allegations of corruption and bribery in parliament.

Speaking at a press conference held shortly after presenting the Ministers with their letters of appointment, Nasheed said his government would "work towards fulfilling its pledges to the people."

[59] On 10 December 2010, the Supreme Court of the Maldives ruled that the ministers not endorsed by the parliament cannot remain in their posts, and requested their immediate resignation from office.

[61] Less than a year into the presidency, cabinet members representing other political parties in the coalition began to resign in protest of an alleged lack of respect for transparency and the constitution.

[43] Another issue taken up by the opposition parties was that Nasheed's government allowed spas and resort islands to be exempt from the laws that prohibited alcohol and pork products elsewhere in the largely Muslim nation.

[64] Former cabinet minister Mohamed Jameel Ahmed was repeatedly summoned to the police station in connection with the protests, at one point being detained at Dhoonidhoo, a Maldivian prison island.

Chief Justice Abdulla Mohamed ordered his release, but according to the police his non-compliance with their on-going investigations[65] against him led in turn to his being arrested by members of the Maldives National Defence Force.

[74] The Maldives National Defence Force subsequently had a standoff with police who had joined the protesters, in which the MNDF fired rubber bullets into the crowd.

[78] Nasheed later wrote that he was forced to resign "at gunpoint", and that "powerful networks" of Gayoom loyalists had manipulated events to "strangle" Maldivian democracy.

[80] The Maldives' Commission of National Inquiry, appointed to investigate the matter, found that there was no evidence to support Nasheed's version of events.

The U.S. State Department and the Commonwealth of Nations Secretary Kamalesh Sharma welcomed the release of the report, and called on Maldivians to abide by its decision.

[85] The Island President received generally positive reviews from U.S. critics, holding a 98% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes[86] and a score of 72 out of 100 at Metacritic.

[97] Nasheed was reported to have taken refuge in the Indian High Commission office in Malé in February 2013 after a Maldivian court issued an arrest warrant against him and ordered the police to detain him.

The ruling came four days after Nasheed's lawyers quit in protest against what they called was a biased trial aimed at destroying his political career.

"[106] On 16 January 2016, Nasheed, following foreign pressure,[107] was granted permission to leave for the UK by the Maldivian Government to undergo a spinal surgery.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nasheed "was granted permission under the condition to serve the remainder of the sentence upon return to the Maldives after surgery".

[109] Nasheed contended that a state-owned company once led by Maldives President Abdulla Yameen sold nearly $300 million worth of oil to Myanmar's military dictatorship in the early 2000s; with nearly half the money disappearing.

Nasheed had arranged for emergency clearance for the Sri Lanka Air Force flight carrying Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards.

[128] On Thursday, 6 May 2021 at 8:39 pm MVT (UTC+5), Nasheed was the target of an assassination attempt that also wounded two of his bodyguards in addition to a British tourist and another bystander.

[130] President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih responded to the blast as an attack on the country's democracy and economy, and vowed the perpetrators “would face the full force of the law”.

Officials close to Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) told Agence France-Presse (AFP) they believed he may have been targeted in retaliation for his anti-corruption campaign.

[131] Nasheed underwent 16 hours of surgery for injuries to his head, chest, abdomen, and limbs, according to the hospital, and remained in a critical condition in intensive care.

[146] On 28 June 2012, Nasheed received the James Lawson Award from the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict at Tufts University in Massachusetts, US.