COLOMBO: Britain has granted refugee status to Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives who was jailed in 2015 after a trial that drew international criticism, his lawyer said on Monday.

Nasheed, the Maldives' first democratically elected president, was allowed to go to Britain in January for medical treatment after President Abdullah Yameen came under international pressure to let him leave.

Nasheed was jailed for 13 years on terrorism charges in after illegally ordering the arrest of a judge in a trial that put a spotlight on instability in the Indian Ocean archipelago known as a paradise for wealthy tourists.

"Nasheed has been granted political refugee status in the UK," Hasan Latheef, Nasheed's lawyer, told Reuters from the capital, Male.

A British High Commission official in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo said it did not comment on individual asylum cases.

Since his release, Nasheed has called for sanctions against Yameen and his allies for detaining political prisoners, mainly opposition leaders, and for alleged human rights abuses in the Maldives.

Nasheed was ousted in disputed circumstances in 2012 after ordering the arrest of the judge.

The United Nations, the United States and human rights groups have said Yameen's government failed to follow due process and that the case was politically motivated.

Government spokesmen were not immediately available for comment on the British decision.

Yameen, whose half-brother lost power to Nasheed in 2008, has rejected accusations Nasheed's trial was politically motivated and said the legal process was fair.

In 2009, Nasheed led the world's first underwater cabinet meeting to grab attention over rising sea levels that threaten his country.