Former President Abdulla Yameen has said that the government should step down over the case of Abdulla Luthufee, the mastermind of the 1988 coup.

Luthufee, who was given a life sentence for leading the coup, had fled the Maldives during a medical trip in 2010 but turned himself in at the Sri Lankan embassy this year.

The government had kept the news secret for a month but has returned him to Maldives.

At an opposition event on Thursday night, Yameen said that if the government claims to uphold democratic principles, it should resign over this issue and that even citizens of poor countries would not tolerate such acts from their government officials.

Yameen said that President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s administration has not fulfilled its pledge regarding upholding democratic principles and that the government officials have failed to take responsibility over the issue.