U.N. rights chief urges Maldives to release former president

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein has called on the government of the Maldives to release former president Mohamed Nasheed, whose re-arrest on Sunday constituted "a serious set-back", a spokesman said on Tuesday. Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected leader, was ousted in disputed circumstances in 2012 for ordering the arrest of a judge in a case that has brought widespread international criticism and highlighted political instability in a country known as an island paradise popular with wealthy tourists. "The High Commissioner has expressed his deep concern to the government of the Maldives after former president Mohammad Nasheed was once again sent to prison late on Sunday," his spokesman Rupert Colville told a briefing, adding Nasheed had been taken to a high-security prison on Maafushi Island. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Janet Lawrence)