COLOMBO: Maldives on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for ex-president Mohamed Nasheed for failing to return to the troubled archipelago to complete a jail sentence after receiving medical care in Britain. Nasheed – Maldives’ first democratically elected president – won political asylum in Britain in May after being granted permission to travel there for treatment while serving the sentence for a terror-related offence. “A court order (has been) issued for arrest of former president Mohamed Nasheed,” the government statement said which was released days after Nasheed flew to Sri Lanka. “The Maldives correctional service is seeking to have him brought back to serve the remainder of his 13-year sentence,” the statement said. Opposition sources said Nasheed has been meeting Maldives opposition groups in Sri Lanka in recent days to hatch a plan to topple President Abdulla Yameen. Nasheed was among members of several exiled opposition groups meeting in Colombo, two people in Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party said. The Indian Ocean Island chain has been gripped by political turmoil since Nasheed was forced to resign in 2012 – denting its image as a paradise for upmarket tourists. He was sentenced to prison in March 2015 after being convicted on a charge of terrorism for having a judge arrested during his time as president. The international community has fiercely criticised Yameen’s unlawful jailing of Nasheed as well as a string of other opponents in a crackdown on dissent. The Maldives government has accused Nasheed – whose legal team includes high-profile human rights lawyer Amal Clooney – of only securing asylum to avoid serving jail time.