Maldives Vice President Ahmed Adheeb was arrested on Saturday in a probe over a speedboat explosion targeting President Abdulla Yameen, police and government officials told Reuters.
Yameen,
59, was unhurt in the Sept. 28 blast as his presidential boat
Finifenmaa approached the capital Male while he was returning from Saudi
Arabia after the haj pilgrimage, but his wife and two aides were
injured.
"We have arrested the vice president in
relation to the Finifenmaa incident," a police media official told
Reuters. "He is now in police custody in Dhoonidhoo detention centre."
Home minister Umar Naseer told Reuters: "he is arrested on the charges of assassination attempt."
Adheeb's arrest comes after defence minister Moosa Ali Jaleel
was sacked by Yameen on Oct. 14, amid a shake up in VIP security after
the explosion. Two other military officials were also arrested
immediately after the incident.
Police also said three Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) officials have been arrested on Saturday along with Adheeb.
Adheeb was arrested at the airport when he was returning from China after participating in a conference.
Local
media had speculated that Adheeb had left the country to live in exile,
but the vice president confirmed on Thursday in his Twitter feed that
he would return.
Security was beefed up in the capital Male and journalists were not allowed into the airport, eyewitnesses said.
The
government initially said the blast on the speedboat could be due to
mechanical failure but later called it an attempt on Yameen's life after
investigators from the U.S. FBI, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and Sri Lanka
ruled out mechanical failure as the cause.
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