Doctors advise Adeeb to undergo laser treatment

Doctors have advised former vice president Ahmed Adeeb to seek medical treatment, says his family.

Adeeb was taken for emergency medical treatment on Friday night and is now under observation after being treated at Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH)’s ICU.

His wife Mariyam Nashwa said that kidney stones have developed in both his kidneys while some of the kidney stones have moved to his urethra and that he has is being injected with painkillers to ease the excruciating pain.

Nashwa said that they are trying to use medication to dissolve the kidneys stones but that doctors are also preparing for laser treatment as a second course of action.

She also said that it had taken two hours to convince senior correctional service officers that Adeeb was having stomachaches and that he was taken to IGMH only after the doctor at the prison signed a document stating that he cannot be treated at the prison clinic. She added that Adeeb fell down on the way at the jetty.

After Adeeb was taken to the hospital, the police service transferred security duties to the correctional service. His lawyer Moosa Siraj said that it was a sign that no authority wants to take responsibility for Adeeb’s health.

Adeeb, the youngest vice president in Maldives' democratic history, is serving a 33-year prison sentence for multiple counts of corruption and terrorism for his involvement in the attempted assassination of President Abdulla Yameen and the MMPRC embezzlement scandal.

Ever since his imprisonment in 2015, Adeeb’s family and legal team have voiced concern over his growing health issues, including internal cysts, kidney stones, and glaucoma.

The state rejected requests for Adeeb to undergo cancer screening, as advised by doctors three years ago and has also rejected requests to grant him medical leave abroad after deeming him a flight risk.