Amal Clooney Downplays Personal Risk In Defending Former Imprisoned Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed

Amal Clooney is downplaying her personal risk in defending the imprisoned former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed. Making an appearance on Meet the Press Sunday for a special interview with host Chu...
Amal Clooney Downplays Personal Risk In Defending Former Imprisoned Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed
Written by Pam Wright
  • Amal Clooney is downplaying her personal risk in defending the imprisoned former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed.

    Making an appearance on Meet the Press Sunday for a special interview with host Chuck Todd, Amal, the wife of actor George Clooney, said she gives very little thought to any personal risk she may be under by defending the man accused of terrorism and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

    In recent weeks, there have been several public attacks against Amal by Maldives politicians after she took on Nasheed, with one claiming that she was “making things up” about the country.

    Clooney told Todd the same man is now in jail because, she says, the current president “is now increasingly paranoid and going after members of his own party, having dealt with the opposition in its entirety.”

    When Todd asked if she felt that being the wife of George Clooney put her in more danger, Clooney said that she wasn’t not afraid of criticism and sees her new found fame a way to draw more attention to her causes.

    “I think that the kind of attack that I got from that vice president is an act of desperation, and it’s easy to dispose of,” she said. ” So it’s not something that’s worrying. I think, on the other hand, in representing this client and trying to just procure his release and the release of other political prisoners, if people are made aware of the situation in the Maldives, I think that’s a good thing.”

    Clooney said she is hoping to use her public profile to gather international support to help free Nasheed.

    The human rights lawyer is also working on the plight of a female journalist in Azerbaijain who has been imprisoned after, according to Clooney, she “exposed evidence of corruption by the ruling regime.”

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