President Abdulla Yameen has apologized shortly after saying that missing journalist Ahmed Rilwan is dead.

During a speech in GDh. Madaveli on Tuesday, President Yameen said that there was ‘no doubt’ that Rilwan is dead.

He said this while responding to former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb’s claim that the President had ordered his cabinet members to stop the investigation. President Yameen denied Adeeb’s claim, saying that the cabinet had never conducted their own investigation.

President Yameen later apologized after traveling to Faresmaathodaa, and said that “God willing, Rilwan will be found.”

It has been four years since Rilwan’s disappearance, and the court has recently acquittal the two suspects in the case. In a subsequent press statement from prison, Adeeb said that the court’s verdict shows that authorities were negligent in investigating the case.

Adeeb said that President Yameen had also ‘overruled’ the cabinet’s investigation for reasons he had not explain.