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Maldives Arrests Veep Over Plot to Kill President

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Maldives Arrests Veep Over Plot to Kill President SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2015 Clinton in full command after One killed in IS attack on Bangladesh Shiite shrine ‘quite a week’ Page 11 Page 8 Maldives arrests veep over plot to kill president MALE: In photo taken on Oct 7, 2015, Maldives Vice President Ahmed Adeeb speaks to the media. —AP MALE, Maldives: Maldives Vice President Ahmed Adeeb 30 so that Adeeb could be given the job. Adeeb, who had a was arrested yesterday over last month’s alleged attempt meteoric rise in politics, was also a hate figure for the coun- to assassinate President Abdulla Yameen in a bomb blast try’s main opposition, which accused him of sending on board his speedboat, the government said. Adeeb’s dra- underworld gangs to launch attacks against dissidents. matic arrest at the Maldives’ main international airport fol- lowed “extensive investigations by both local and interna- ‘Purge’ of Ministers tional agencies,” the government said in a statement post- Hours before the arrest yesterday, the president sacked ed on the website of its high commission in New Delhi. his police chief Hussain Waheed, the latest in a series of fir- “The charges are extremely serious, and the government ings seen by some as a purge of individuals whose loyalties has had to act decisively,” it said, without saying whether may be in doubt. Defence Minister Moosa Ali Jaleel was the vice president had been formally charged. sacked 10 days ago, while on Thursday Yameen also fired Home Minister Umar Naseer earlier posted on Twitter his main government spokesman Mohamed Shareef, a that Adeeb was in detention on Dhoonidhoo prison island. minister in his cabinet. Shareef, who flew to nearby Sri “Charges: high treason,” he tweeted. Adeeb, 33, was arrest- Lanka soon after the Sept 28 blast, said the explosion may ed at around noon local time (0700 GMT) yesterday as he have been a mechanical issue, but the authorities later returned home from Singapore, where he had stopped declared it to be an assassination attempt. over after attending an investment forum in China. The ruling Progressive Party of Maldives - of which Maldivian police confirmed his detention was linked to an Adeeb is deputy leader - said in a statement it backed the investigation into the Sept 28 blast aboard Yameen’s president in the “challenging times”. Yameen will not be speedboat, which left the leader unhurt but his wife and able to sack Adeeb unless he gets the support of opposi- two others slightly injured. tion legislators in the national parliament. Earlier in Adeeb was unceremoniously escorted away by police as October authorities arrested two security personnel who he disembarked from a Singapore Airlines flight, with a had access to Yameen’s boat but have yet to disclose what coastguard boat taking him to the nearby prison island of caused the explosion. Dhoonidhoo. Dozens of Adeeb’s supporters who had The Maldives has seen its image as a peaceful holiday arrived at the official jetty in Male to greet him were turned destination for well heeled honeymooners dented by polit- back by police in the tiny 2.5-sq-km capital island. ical turmoil since the toppling of the country’s first demo- By afternoon, the authorities had deployed soldiers and cratically elected leader Mohamed Nasheed in Feb 2012. police to maintain calm, while special police units carried Yameen, who came to power in November 2013 following out searches at houses and offices frequented by the a highly controversial election, jailed Nasheed for 13 years detained vice president. “Security in Male has been tight- in March and faces international censure over his crack- ened,” police spokesman Abdulla Nawaz told reporters in down on dissent. the capital where more than a dozen people were arrested A UN panel last month asked Yameen to free Nasheed for disturbing public order. “Police won’t allow any violence and pay him compensation for his wrongful incarceration, in the capital city. Both police and the army will be a demand the president rejected. Yameen’s half brother, deployed to patrol the streets of Male.” former Maldivian strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom Official sources said four of the vice president’s associ- who is now a senior leader of the PPM, cancelled a sched- ates were arrested shortly before Adeeb’s detention and uled visit to India following Adeeb’s arrest. —AFP were also being held on the prison island. Yameen appoint- ed Adeeb as his deputy three months ago after impeach- ing his original running mate Mohamed Jameel on charges of treason. He had changed the Maldives’ constitution to reduce the permissible age of a vice president from 35 to.
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