Maldives: Maldivian vice president Ahmed Adeeb, was arrested by authorities on Saturday in connection with a plot to assassinate President Abdulla Yameen, who escaped from the death after his boat was hit by a bomb last month, the home minister said.
“VP Adeeb under arrest and held in Dhoonidhoo Detention (prison island),” Umar Naseer said on Twitter. “Charges: high treason.”According to the police Adeeb was arrested at the airport while he was returning from an official China visit.
On September 28 explosion took place aboard the boat when President Yameen Abdul Gayoom and his wife were reaching the capital from the airport after a hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. The airport of this archipelago state is on a separate island.
Gayoom escaped safe but his wife, an aide and his bodyguard were injured.
Authorities said initially the blast could be a result of a mechanical failure. But they announced later the blast was an attempt to assassinate Gayoom and launched a criminal investigation. The device was placed under the seat usually occupied by the president, who escaped unhurt because he wasn’t sitting there, the government said.
Adeeb has denied that he was linked to the explosion.
