Maldivian VP nabbed over president boat explosion
The Maldivian vice president has been arrested in connection with a recent blast on a speedboat carrying President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, police say.
Police spokesman Ismail Ali said Ahmed Adeeb was apprehended at the airport on Saturday upon his return from an official visit to China.
A police media official, whose name was not mentioned in reports, also told Reuters that Adeeb was transferred to the Dhoonidhoo island detention center near the capital city of Malé.
Meanwhile, Maldivian Home Minister Umar Naseer said in his twitter feed that the charge against the country’s vice president was “high treason.”
Adeeb, however, has reportedly denied that he was linked to the presidential boat blast.
On September 28, an explosion took place aboard the boat, which was carrying the 56-year-old Maldivian president and his wife, Fathimath Ibrahim, on their return to Malé from the airport after the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
Gayoom escaped unhurt, but his wife, a bodyguard and an aide suffered minor injuries in the blast.
Presidential Office Minister Mohamed Hussain Shareef described the incident as an assassination attempt against the president, citing the findings of international investigators.
Gayoom took power after a contested election in the tropical nation in the Indian Ocean in 2013.
Since the toppling of Mohamed Nasheed, Maldives former president, in February 2012, the island country has been convulsed by political unrest tarnishing its image as an upmarket tourist destination.
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