Police asked to locate Luthfee and hand him over to DPRS

Ministry of Home Affairs has requested the Police to find the location of Abdullah Luthfee of H. Haajaraage, who joined forces with Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers to attack Maldives on 3 November 1988, and hand him over to DPRS. Nineteen Maldivians were killed during the attack.

Luthfee, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, was allowed by the administration of former President Mohamed Nasheed to travel abroad for medical treatment. He was supposed to return to Maldives in January 2010, but failed to do so, following which the former government categorized Luthfee as a criminal whose whereabouts were unknown.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Mohamed Fayaz said that Luthfee was allowed to go abroad under a travel document which gave him permission to go to India for medical treatment; however information had been received that Luthfee had changed his name and currently resides in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

“It has been over a month since we notified the Police to hand Luthfee over to us. Luthfee was allowed to travel to India following a letter submitted by him requesting for medical treatment. A copy of a ticket to India is attached with the letter. He was issued a travel document passport with validity of one year. This is how he was permitted to go to India. But now we have received information that he lives in Sri Lanka. He has changed his name. This is against the document which was issued to him, so the Police have been notified to hand him over,” Fayaz said.

Fayaz further said that the regulations existing at that time do not allow permitting a man convicted of such a serious crime to travel abroad for medical treatment simply because he submits a letter requesting for it:

“It was clear even back then, that this permit should not have been issued simply by him submitting a letter. But he was given permission, against rules and regulations.”

He also said that Luthfee is to be returned under the program to return the criminals who have been released while they were serving time, and are currently moving about freely in the society. He stressed the importance of abolishing the system which allows the government to release criminals when they wished to do so.

“Our regulations have also been changed not to allow criminals to go abroad for medical treatment. We are working towards returning all such criminals back to serving time, not just Luthfee,” Fayaz said.

Fayaz noted that the Police were working hard on this issue, and expressed confidence that Luthfee will be returned.

The media reported some time ago that Luthfee told his friends that he will not return to Maldives. While in Colombo, Luthfee has even given interviews to Sri Lankan media.