Maldives ex-VP arrested and transferred to detention center
Adeeb was caught while trying to enter India via a tugboat on Thursday, and was returned to the country on Sunday night
Former VP Ahmed Adeeb being transferred to Dhoonidhoo
Former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb, who was caught while attempting to flee from authorities, has been arrested.
Police arrested him under a new court order at around 6:30am on Monday, after the Criminal Court released him at a remand hearing held late Sunday night.
Adeeb was caught while trying to enter India via a tugboat on Thursday. Indian authorities had refused him entry to the country since he tried to enter at a non-sanctioned port in Thoothukudi and without valid documents; while reports first surfaced that Adeeb was deported from India, authorities deny this.
He was handed over to Maldivian authorities on Saturday morning, along with the nine crew members on the tugboat he was traveling in, and police confirmed his arrest shortly after.
Adeeb was returned to the country at around 10pm on Sunday, and was taken for a remand hearing at around 12.30am. However, the Criminal Court ruled that there were no grounds to remand him.
He was then taken to the police headquarters, and journalists at the scene reported that he was taken to his residence at around dawn.
He was arrested an hour later, and transferred to Dhoonidhoo Detention Center.
During the remand hearing, officers had informed the judge that they were seeking an additional arrest order on the former vice president for “leaving the country while passport is withheld.”
Supreme Court had, back in June, ordered to withhold Adeeb’s passport, after accepting an appeal case submitted by the state as the High Court overturned his eight-year embezzlement conviction.
Adeeb’s international legal team said that he had sought India’s protection due to threats to his life.
The country’s youngest-ever vice president, Adeeb was impeached in November 2015, after being arrested in connection with a blast aboard the presidential speedboat that the government says was an assassination attempt on then President Abdulla Yameen.
Yameen has since been charged with money laundering, and the state has named his former deputy as a witness in the case.
While Adeeb was sentenced to 33 years in prison over various charges including terrorism and corruption, his sentences were overturned this year. However, the court had ordered retrials in two cases.
