Ex-defence minister “plotted to attack” president, police chief, tourism minister
11 Mar 2015, 21:35
Zaheena Rasheed
Former Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim plotted to attack President Abdulla Yameen, state prosecutors have claimed.
Revealing confidential plans in a pen drive allegedly confiscated along with a pistol and three bullets from Nazim’s home on January 18, state prosecutors said the retired colonel had also planned to attack Commissioner of Police Hussein Waheed and Tourism Minister Ahmed Adeeb.
The Prosecutor General’s (PG) Office had previously submitted the plans as confidential documents in a weapons smuggling charge against Nazim.
The plans demonstrated Nazim had the “motive and character” to use the pistol and bullets, state prosecutor Adam Arif told the Criminal Court today.
Nazim’s lawyer Maumoon Hameed maintains rogue police officers planted the weapons at the former defence minister’s apartment in a conspiracy engineered by Tourism Minister Adeeb.
Defence lawyers today named President Yameen, Commissioner Waheed, Chief of Defence Forces Major General Ahmed Shiyam, Home Minister Umar Naseer and several senior ranking police and military officers as witnesses.
The Criminal Court adjourned today’s hearing stating the court would decide whether to summon defence witnesses only if they appear to negate the prosecution’s evidence.
Pen drive
Following the January 18 weapons find, Nazim was dismissed from his ministerial post. Two weeks later, on February 10, he was arrested on additional charges of terrorism and treason. At the time, the police accused Nazim of plotting a coup and planning to harm senior government officials.
On February 24, at the first hearing of the trial on weapons possession, Arif revealed Nazim’s alleged plot to harm officials was to be financed by Jumhooree Party (JP) Leader Gasim Ibrahim’s Villa Group.
The documents were to be kept confidential, but Arif today revealed further details, alleging a man named Riyaz was also involved in financing Nazim’s alleged plans.
Another individual identified as FA was to secure international assistance from Singapore, Malaysia and Bangkok, while another identified as “Bodu Boalha” [Big Ball] was to import weapons into the country, Arif said.
The documents also contained an escape plan, and listed the state wholesaler State Trading Organisation (STO) as an additional resource.
Nazim’s brother Adam Azim had been STO’s Managing Director up until his dismissal on Tuesday.
The state prosecutor also said the documents revealed that Nazim had engineered December’s water crisis in Malé when a fire at the water plant had left over 150,000 people in the capital without water for two weeks.
Nazim had also attempted to influence three Majlis votes, the prosecution said, which included the no-confidence vote against former Health Minister Dr Mariyam Shakeela, the vote to appoint a new Prosecutor General, and the vote to reduce the Supreme Court bench.
Defence witnesses
Nazim has named President Yameen as a witness in order to prove Home Minister Naseer had notified the president of Adeeb’s alleged threat to “destroy” Nazim, defence lawyers said.
On March 7, Hameed claimed Adeeb framed Nazim after the former defence minister alerted Yameen of the tourism minister using SO SWAT officers to commit criminal acts, including the chopping down of all of Malé City’s Areca palms in October last year.
Defence lawyers have also called Superintendent of Police Ahmed Nafiz and former head of police’s intelligence directorate Mohamed ‘MC’ Hameed to prove a complaint was lodged over SO officer’s alleged criminal activities, and that SO officers had engaged in criminal activity.
The defence has also called senior ranking police and military officers to prove:
a Special Protection Group Corporal had lost a 9mm Browning pistol at Shangri-La resort in 2014
weapons are routinely imported into the Maldives illegally and used illegally
police officers did not follow due process in raiding and searching Nazim’s residence
police intelligence had not received any information that illegal weapons were smuggled into Malé prior to the raid
The tourism minister has previously said he was “shocked” by the allegations, and dismissed them as lies.
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