Parliament accepts emergency motion over Luthufee's extradition

An emergency motion has been submitted to parliament, over the delay in extraditing the 1988 coup leader Abdulla Luthufee from Sri Lanka.

According to authorities, Luthufee presented himself to the Maldives embassy in Sri Lanka on May 1, after years in hiding.

An emergency motion was submitted to parliament on Monday by Maduvvari constituency MP Adam Shareef, which states that Luthufee is a terrorist that killed 19 Maldivians -together with mercenaries from Sri Lanka- and that he was sentenced to death over the matter. This was later altered to a life sentence.

MP Shareef highlighted that authorities have failed to bring him back within 48 hours, as previously assured.

69 MPs voted in favor of the motion, while one abstained.

Luthufee was convicted and sentenced to life in prison over the attempted coup, and had been in hiding since being granted medical leave in 2010.

While he is to have turned himself in to the Maldivian embassy in Sri Lanka in early May, this was only revealed to the public on June 24.

Authorities have said that there have been various obstacles to bringing Luthufee back to the country, including Maldives’ decision to leave the Commonwealth. The foreign ministry said that this has led to concerns over the validity of the extradition agreement between both countries; the decision to leave the organization was made during the previous administration in October 2016.

MP Shareef was the defence minister from October 2015 to November 2018.