Gov't working to pay Luthufee's overstay fine with taxpayers' money: PPM

Opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) claims that the government is working to pay an overstay fine for wanted fugitive Abdulla Luthufee.

Luthufee- convicted and sentenced to life over the 1988 attempted coup that took the lives of 19 Maldivians- has been in hiding since being granted medical leave in 2010.

He turned himself in to the Maldives embassy in Colombo on May 1, after the neighboring country launched a nation-wide search following the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

The opposition coalition on Monday submitted an emergency motion to parliament, over the delay in Luthufee’s extradition. This was submitted by current Maduvvari constituency MP Adam Shareef, who was the defence minister from 2015 to 2018.

At a press conference held later, PPM said that it has learnt that the government is working to pay the overstay for Luthufee.

The party’s deputy, Ahmed Shiyam said that using the taxpayers' money to pay this fine “is unacceptable.”

Further questioning the government whether this is true, Shiyam also questioned the legitimacy of the current government.

He also spoke in a manner that Luthufee “had a hand” in the main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s win in April’s parliamentary elections.

Furthermore, Shiyam noted that an MDP delegation was recently in neighboring Sri Lanka, and added that Luthufee was in the country at the time as well.

He also claimed that senior MDP officials ‘were always aware of his whereabouts.’

While PPM made various accusations against the current administration, it did not comment on why the PPM administration had failed to bring Luthufee back during its five years in power.

Ruling party lawmakers have accused the opposition of politicizing the matter, to gain support for an upcoming rally.

In a statement released last week, PPM’s coalition partner, People’s National Congress (PNC) accused the government of “hoodwinking” the public and of helping Luthufee hide in Sri Lanka.

While work is being done to extradite Luthufee from Sri Lanka, authorities have highlighted various obstacles in the matter. This includes concerns regarding the validity of Maldives’ extradition agreement with Sri Lanka due to the decision to leave the Commonwealth - the PPM administration decided to leave the organization in 2016 - as well as the fact that he had been hiding in Lanka without a valid visa and his turning himself in coinciding with the search operation launched after the terror attacks.

While Luthufee is to have turned himself in on May 1, it is important to note that authorities hid this until June 24.