COLOMBO: Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney downplayed her actor husband George Clooney fears for her safety Friday, after he voiced his concern on a US talk show following an attack on one of her co-counsel in the Maldives.

Amal Clooney had been on a four-day visit to the elite honeymoon destination, where she was defending jailed former President Mohamed Nasheed, this week when she learned some of the “horrifying” details of the attack on her co-counsel, local lawyer Mahfooz Saeed.

Saeed was stabbed in the head by unknown assailants on Saturday in the capital Male. Doctors have said he narrowly escaped with his life, and is now recovering in hospital. No arrests have been made.

Speaking on the premiere episode of Late Night with Stephen Colbert in the US Thursday, George Clooney told the audience that although the Maldives sounded like a nice place “it is not so nice there now.”

“Nasheed is a pretty amazing man,” the Hollywood actor said, adding: “It’s a tricky place to be right now. Her co-counsel was just stabbed in the head a few days ago... It’s a dangerous place to be right now. I’m very concerned with her being there, quite honestly.”

When asked by host Colbert if he wanted to catch the next flight to the Maldives, Clooney quipped: “Yes I do. She won’t let me go.”

And Amal Clooney, who was in Sri Lanka for a visit Friday, told reporters in Colombo when asked if she had felt threatened during her stay in the Maldives that “it isn’t about me.”

“This is a much bigger issue,” the lawyer said.

“We were obviously very concerned as a team to learn of Mahfooz Saeed’s attack, and while I was in the Maldives we heard some of the horrifying details about it.”