Former president Mohamed Nasheed, opposition leaders among 193 others arrested in Maldives

Male: Maldives police arrested 193 people including three opposition leaders after clashes broke out on Friday during protests over the jailing of former president Mohamed Nasheed, whose trial was condemned by foreign governments as having been deeply flawed.

Police said the opposition leaders had incited violence against the police when addressing the crowds and that Sheikh Imran Abdulla, who heads the small but influential Islamic Adhaalath Party, had organised the protests to topple the government. The protests were called to demand the release of Mohamed Nasheed, the Maldives' first democratically elected president, who was jailed in March for ordering the arrest in 2012 of a judge.

During a visit to Colombo, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Nasheed's case an injustice.

"We see even now there are troubling signs of democracy under threat in the Maldives where former president Nasheed has been prosecuted without due process. That is an injustice that must be addressed soon."

Police arrested Abdulla, along with Ali Waheed, chairperson of Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party, and Ameen Ibrahim, deputy leader of the Jumhooree Party, officials said. All three remain in detention.

"The president doesn't have any interest in arresting opposition leaders, but no one is above the law," Ibrahim Muaz, a spokesman for the President's Office, said.

A spokesman for Nasheed's party said the protests had been peaceful and denied its supporters had been violent.

During Friday's protest, police used tear gas, stun guns and pepper spray to stop crowds from breaking through barriers and into a compound housing the police headquarters in capital city Male, in the biggest protest since Nasheed was jailed.

Several police officers and protesters were injured although none seriously, witnesses said, and more protests are expected late on Saturday. All 193 arrested remained in custody, a police official said.

The imprisonment of Nasheed triggered daily protests in the Maldives, a string of tropical islands that has struggled to embed democracy since 30 years of authoritarian rule came to an end in 2008.

Nasheed was ousted in disputed circumstances in 2012. His supporters say he was forced out in a coup.