Maldives Police Service (MPS) has stated that if the state is required to pay a MVR 2.7 million fine to bring fugitive Abdulla Luthufee back to the Maldives, it is the government that will make the payment and not the police institute.

Responding to a question posed by RaajjeMV, police media official stated that it is up to the government to pay the fine if required and that the police institute has only been keeping Luthufee in Sri Lanka.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that they are doing everything in their power to bring Luthufee back to Maldives.

While the local media is currently engrossed in the case involving Luthufee’s extradition to the Maldives, opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) has claimed that the government is working to pay an overstay fine for him, with the opposition coalition having submitted an emergency motion to parliament over the delay in extraditing him.

PPM’s coalition partner People’s National Congress (PNC) also accused the government of “hoodwinking” the public and of helping Luthufee hide in Sri Lanka.

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

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 after Sri Lanka launched a nation-wide search following the Easter Sunday terror attacks, it is important to note that authorities hid this until June 24.