Coalition leader and former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has on Saturday left to India for medical treatment, along with former first lady Nasreena Ibrahim.
Maumoon announced, through a tweet, that he is leaving to Coimbatore city in the state of Tamil Nadu. He left through the Velana International Airport on Saturday morning.
Nasreena and I are leaving this morning for Coimbatore for medical purposes. We hope to return in a few weeks’ time. We thank everybody who turned up to see us off. pic.twitter.com/kBmjuAdiyy
— Maumoon Abdul Gayoom (@maumoonagayoom) December 22, 2018
Maumoon, who was president since 1978 until he lost the 2008 elections, said that they are to return in ‘a few weeks’.
Maumoon is one of the leaders of the Maldivian government coalition and his Maumoon Reform Movement had contributed to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s election in September’s ballots.
The former president, who served a short prison sentence which was latter overturned, has been diagnosed with a form of vertigo that makes him vulnerable to collapses.