Ex-VP’s conviction over assassination attempt overturned

The High Court on Monday overturned former vice president Ahmed Adeeb’s conviction on a terrorism charge raised over an alleged attempt to assassinate former president Abdulla Yameen.

Adeeb was convicted of terrorism and corruption and sentenced to 33 years in the wake of an explosion on the president’s speedboat in September 2015.

A three-judge High Court panel quashed his 15-year jail sentence and ordered a retrial.

The decision was based on a Supreme Court order last year for Adeeb’s release on the grounds of political influence over his rushed trial, his lawyer Ismail Mohamed told the Maldives Independent.

Adeeb is currently under house arrest.

In late April, state prosecutors asked the Supreme Court to overturn Adeeb’s 10-year terror conviction over an alleged plot to use a pistol ahead of an anti-government protest. The U-turn came days after he was submitted as a key witness against former president Abdulla Yameen.

If the conviction is overturned, Adeeb’s combined jail sentence would be reduced to eight years.

In December, the former spokesman at the president’s office cast doubt on the alleged attempt to assassinate his boss with a bomb on the presidential speedboat, alleging a video showing fire was doctored.

The Finifenmaa blast injured former first lady Fathimath Ibrahim, a presidential aide and a bodyguard, but Yameen escaped unhurt. The boat blast occurred just as the speedboat was about to dock at the Izzudeen jetty in the capital en route from the nearby airport island. The president and first lady were returning from Saudi Arabia after performing the Hajj pilgrimage.

Adeeb was found guilty in June 2016 of orchestrating the bomb plot along with two military bodyguards.