Rights Groups Call for Release of Activist

International human rights groups called on the Maldives to immediately release a prodemocracy activist who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on terrorism charges.

Jennifer Latheef, 32, was sentenced Tuesday for encouraging others to commit acts of terrorism. She was sentenced after being identified as “one of the instigators” of riots, a government spokesman said.

Amnesty International said Latheef, daughter of the founder of the country’s main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party, was “a prisoner of conscience.”