Opposition politicizing Luthufee's case to create public unrest: deputy speaker

Deputy Speaker and Galolhu-North constituency MP Eva Abdulla has accused the opposition of politicizing Abdulla Luthufee’s case, to create chaos within the public for their own gain.

While an emergency motion was submitted to parliament over the delay in extraditing the fugitive from Sri Lanka, by Maduvvari constituency MP Adam Shareef, MP Eva highlighted that the this was done as part of the preparation for an upcoming protest against the government.

Hence, she said that the reason for submitting the emergency motion was to create a public outrage in an attempt to gather people for the rally.

MP Eva noted that the motion submitted to parliament had a factual error; it claimed that Maldivian authorities had not reported the case to the Sri Lankan government after he turned himself into the embassy despite Lanka issuing an Interpol red notice for him.

She said that this is “completely false,” and that authorities had informed the Sri Lankan government despite not needing to do so as the Maldives had requested the red notice from Interpol.

While Luthufee had been in hiding since 2010, MP Eva also noted that the police had been aware of his whereabouts from 2012 onward but that the relevant authorities had failed to take any action on the matter.

Police have since launched an investigation into the previous government’s inaction in the case.

Further noting that the Maduvvari constituency MP was the country’s defence minister until November 2018, she said that “it is hard to believe that he was not aware of this.”

She also highlighted that the current administration is doing a number of work to bring Luthufee back, and that the police is prepared to do so “as soon as the Lankan attorney general’s department gives the approval.”

In addition, South-Galolhu constituency Mickail Naseem said that it is a disgrace that an incident that led to the loss of lives of 19 Maldivians is being used as “a political tool.”

He questioned on why the Maduvvari constituency MP did not see this as an urgent issue while he was the country’s defence minister, from 2015 to 2018.

Further noting that Luthufee had turned himself amid the chaos in Sri Lanka following the Easter Sunday terror attack, MP Mickail emphasized that the country has been on alert since.

Luthufee was convicted and sentenced to life in prison over the 1988 attempted coup, and had been in hiding since being granted medical leave in 2010. While he was initially sentenced to death, it was later commuted to life imprisonment as the Maldives has an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty. If he had served his sentence it would have expired in 2014.

While he is to have turned himself in on May 1, it is important to note authorities had kept this a secret until June 24.