MALE: Jailed Maldivian Opposition leader and former president Mohamed Nasheed left the country on Monday for urgent medical treatment in Britain after a delay caused by a legal dispute with the government, his party said.

“President Nasheed is on a flight to Colombo and from there he will go to Britain,” Maldivian Democratic Party spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor told AFP.

Mr. Nasheed’s lawyer Hassan Latheef posted on Twitter a photo of them aboard a Sri Lankan airlines flight to Colombo on their way to London after legal wrangling over the former leader’s return to serve the balance of his 13-year jail term. The former leader refused a government request to leave a relative to guarantee his return. He was originally due to leave on Sunday in line with a deal brokered by diplomats from India, Sri Lanka and Britain. Mr. Nasheed’s lawyers had accused the government of introducing the “illegal” last-minute condition, but the MDP agreed to an alternative of providing a relative only to communicate Mr. Nasheed’s whereabouts while abroad. “President Nasheed told members of his family that he wasn’t prepared to put their freedom in jeopardy in order to secure his own,” the MDP said in a statement. Mr. Latheef said the government had reneged on the agreed deal at the last minute yesterday by demanding a “hostage,” until he returned from Britain. “This kind of blackmail is illegal, unheard of in international affairs, and totally outrageous,” he told AFP before leaving Male with his client. — PTI