Adeeb refuses injection over fear of assassination plot

The prisons authority has stopped medical treatment for Ahmed Adeeb after his wife refused to sign a consent form for administering an injection, the jailed former vice president’s family has alleged.

Adeeb’s family said in a statement Sunday morning that the Maldives Correctional Services push to give him the injection ostensibly for a CT scan was “suspicious” because his lawyers were previously tipped off to an alleged plot to assassinate the 35-year-old in custody.

“Doctors asked Adeeb to get screening for cancer. That was in November 2015,” the family said. “The CT scan that the [MCS] is trying to get nearly two after that date is not related to screening for cancer.”

The authorities have refused to grant Adeeb medical leave to travel overseas for the treatment of glaucoma, kidney stones and internal cysts. His family say they fear for his life because a sibling had died after the discovery of a cancerous cyst.

Earlier this month, the MCS asked Adeeb’s wife Maryam Nashwa to come to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital within half an hour to sign the consent form for the injection and threatened to cease arrangements for Adeeb’s medical care if she refused, the family alleged.

A week later, the prisons authority told her that Adeeb has agreed to get the injection. But the family later found out from Adeeb that this was untrue, which “raises questions about the intention of the [MCS].”

The MCS spokesman was unavailable for comment.

In a rare press conference in mid-July, President Abdulla Yameen said Adeeb would only be authorised to leave the country for treatment once he returns millions of dollars stolen from state coffers.

Yameen’s former deputy is serving a 33-year jail sentence on multiple counts of corruption and terrorism. He was found guilty of masterminding a bomb attack on the president’s speedboat and of plotting to use a firearm during an opposition protest.

In addition to a conviction for the theft of US$5 million, Adeeb is also facing prosecution on numerous counts of abuse of authority over the embezzlement of nearly US$80 million from the state-owned Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation – a corruption scandal of unprecedented scale in Maldivian history.