Ms Latheef says she doesn't want to be labelled a "terrorist"

Jennifer Latheef told the BBC she wants all charges against her dropped and her name cleared. She also wants those jailed alongside her to be freed too.

The government announced Ms Latheef's release on Wednesday. She was jailed for 10 years last October after being convicted of inciting a riot in 2003.

International human rights groups sharply criticised the sentence.

Amnesty International described her as "a prisoner of conscience".

The Maldives government said her conviction had been based on photographic evidence of her involvement in a violent mob.

'Politically motivated'

Ms Latheef, the daughter of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) founder Mohamed Latheef, maintains that her trial was "politically motivated".

Anti-government protests have grown in the Maldives in recent years

She says that evidence was falsified against her and her co-defendants.

Four are thought to be still in detention. A fifth, who Ms Latheef says is President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's nephew, is abroad and was charged in absentia.

Ms Latheef says the authorities came to her house in the capital, Male, to inform her of her release early on Wednesday.

"I didn't accept the pardon as I would still have a criminal record. My name has to be cleared," she told the BBC.

She had not been out of the house and believed she was still technically under arrest. She was moved to house arrest on medical grounds after spending some months in jail.

'Dragging feet'

The announcement of her release came after the government and opposition recently reached an agreement under which other opposition detainees are to be freed.

A government statement announcing Ms Latheef's pardon on Wednesday said that charges had been withdrawn against 19 others being prosecuted for public order offences.

Both sides have also agreed to reduce the political temperature and work in a more constructive and positive manner Government statement

It added that President Gayoom had pardoned and released 11 people last week convicted of public order offences since May.

But MDP secretary general Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said many detainees had not been freed as promised.

"They should have been released by Independence Day on 26 July. The authorities are dragging their feet," he told the BBC.

Ms Latheef was detained during unprecedented street protests in Male on 20 September 2003 after prisoners died during violence at a jail in the capital.

President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has ruled the Maldives for more than 25 years and political parties were in effect banned until June last year.