Gayoom questioned over missing hard drive

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was questioned Thursday by the police over a missing hard drive thought to contain the ruling Progressive Party of the Maldives’ membership registry.

In a Twitter post, the former president said police officers “visited me in my office today and asked me if I knew anything about the missing PPM hard disk… I told them I know nothing”.

The hard drive was reported missing in November after supporters of President Abdulla Yameen, Gayoom’s half-brother, ransacked the ruling party’s headquarters and removed all of its computers, documents and furniture amid an acrimonious struggle for control between the two brothers.

Anti-Gayoom graffiti was found scrawled on the walls and used motor oil was later thrown on the office’s gates.

The Yameen faction, citing the loss of its membership registry, has since won a legal bid to delay local council elections by two months.

The police have previously searched Gayoom’s office and raided the home of Abdul Aleem, the Gayoom-faction’s secretary general, over the missing drive.

Gayoom, who described the police officers as “very polite”, said he told them to “question those who took things illegally and by force from our premises.”

Gayoom’s daughter, Yumna Maumoon, was also summoned to the police on Wednesday over the ongoing investigation. His deputy, Aminath Nadira, was questioned in November.

Yameen has meanwhile outmanoeuvred his brother, winning supreme court for a ruling that effectively stripped Gayoom of his powers as elected head of the ruling party and placed Yameen as head of the PPM.

Gayoom has since withdrawn support for Yameen, accusing his administration of authoritarianism and corruption.

Two of Gayoom’s four children have sided with Yameen; Dunya Maumoon, former foreign minister who resigned in July citing opposition to the death penalty, took up the post of state minister for health earlier this month.

Gayoom’s youngest son, Ghassan Maumoon, remains a junior minister at the president’s office.