Ex-VP Adeeb’s family expresses concern over 'forcible' transfer

Former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb’s transfer back to prison on Saturday while undergoing treatment was done forcibly and summarily, his family has said.

In a statement expressing heavy concern over the transfer, Adeeb’s family says that officers that transferred him had refused to share the hospital’s discharge summary.

The statement says Adeeb was in immense pain when officers ‘disrespectfully’ commanded the former vice president, claiming they had strict orders ‘from above’.

The officer had ignored Adeeb’s complaint of pain in his abdomen, and said that they had been instructed to transfer him ‘in any manner’ possible.

Adeeb’s wife Mariyam Nashwa, who was his caregiver at the time and asked to see a copy of the discharge summary, had been escorted out of his hospital room before officers locked themselves with Adeeb.

The statement says officers proceeded to stroll Adeeb, ‘on a wheelchair’, out of the hospital premises as the family was forced to wait outside the room, and that they had not been allowed to properly part with him.

The family says a total of 15 officers of the Maldives Correctional Services and 10 officers of the Maldives Police Services’ special operations unit were involved in the transfer. Hospital staff had also neglected to inform the family, the statement says.

Adeeb was kept in house arrest for 36 days after a surgery to remove kidney stones he developed while serving out his decades-long jail sentence. Two days after he was transferred back to prison on January 2nd, he was admitted to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital for treatment of ‘post-surgery complications’.