Parliament Speaker, former President Mohamed Nasheed has acknowledged the work of the current administration, in bringing back wanted fugitive Abdulla Luthufee.
While Luthufee fled after being granted medical leave during Nasheed’s administration in 2010, he was extradited from Sri Lanka on Tuesday night.
Noting that there have been numerous home ministers and police commissioners since then, the former president tweeted that “this was done during President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s administration, with Imran Abdulla as Home Minister and Mohamed Hameed as Police Commissioner.”
While the home minister was recently presented to parliament for questioning over the matter, he had revealed that the police service had been aware of Luthufee’s whereabouts from 2012 – 2016 but that former Home Minister Umar Naseer had refused to approve his extradition.
Umar has denied this, and accused Imran of deceiving the public.
Nasheed’s tweet noted that these claims “should not be believed.”
Luthufee- convicted and sentenced to life over the 1988 attempted coup that took the lives of 19 Maldivians- had been in hiding since being granted medical leave in 2010.
The attempted coup in capital city Malé on 3 November 1988 by a Sri Lankan militant group took the lives of 19 Maldivians. Due to Luthufee’s involvement, he was initially sentenced to death, which was reduced to life imprisonment by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
While Luthufee is to have turned himself in to the Maldives embassy in Colombo on May 1, this was only revealed to the public in late June, after Umar tweeted that he was living in the embassy.
The government faced immense criticism after this, with opposition lawmakers submitting emergency motions in the case to parliament.
The opposition also claimed that the current administration was helping in habouring Luthufee.
At a press conference held last week, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih stated that Luthufee is the country’s “biggest traitor” and that his administration has no plans to pardon him or grant him clemency.
