Maldives Vice President Arrested

Police in the Maldives have arrested Ahmed Adeeb, the country’s vice president, on charges of treason, alleging that he was involved in plotting an explosion that could have killed president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom in September.

Adeeb, 33, was arrested at the Maldives’ main worldwide airport located on a small islet near the capital island of Male at around noon local time (0700 GMT) Saturday as he returned home from Singapore.

“We have arrested the vice president in relation to the Finifenmaa incident”, a police media official told Reuters.

Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom on Sunday revealed that detained Vice President Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor tried to file a no confidence motion in a bid to impeach him.

Adeeb was taken into custody on Saturday at the airport in Malé upon returning from an official visit to China.

Gayoom escaped unhurt, but his wife, a bodyguard and an aide suffered minor injuries in the blast.

Investigators that included the Federal Bureau of Investigation ruled out mechanical failure, and the government said an explosive device was under the seat Gayoom usually occupied.

An investigation confirmed the explosion had been deliberate, and rumours circulating Male, a cramped city of 150,000 people, had centred on Mr Adeeb before his arrest. But President Gayoom said that a criminal investigation had pointed to links between Adeeb and two soldiers who had been arrested for tampering with evidence on the presidential boat soon after the blast September 28.

“Yameen further disclosed that materials used for bomb making were found from a few of the houses of Adheeb’s close associates”. But a statement put out by the Maldivian president’s office at the end of Swaraj’s visit had strongly objected to what it called foreign interference in Maldivian affairs-seen as a rejection of India’s stance on the internal situation in the Maldives.

He successfully pursued a constitutional amendment to lower the minimum age in order to assume the position.

During a hearing in which Adeeb participated by teleconference, the court approved his detention for 15 days of questioning while police conduct searches on the homes and businesses of his family and associates.

Yameen fired his police chief on Friday after Defence Minister Moosa Ali Jaleel was dismissed last week.

A Maldives police officer stands guard outside the residence of former Vice President Mohamed Jameel as forensic team undertakes a search in Male, Maldives, Saturday, October 24, 2015.