Adeeb returns to Maldives after treatment

Former vice president Ahmed Adeeb has returned to the Maldives after seeking medical treatment in Singapore.

Adeeb traveled to Singapore for medical treatment on July 11, hours after the Correctional Service’s Medical Board granted him permission to travel overseas for medical tests that aren’t available from Maldives.

His medical furlough was extended on four occasions since then, until his return tonight.

Adeeb’s political party, Maldives Third-Way Democrats (MTD) said Adeeb returned to Maldives on Friday night following the completion of the first phase of his treatment despite receiving an additional extension to his medical furlough just two days ago.

The party reported that Adeeb will return to Singapore for the second and the last phase of his treatment in October.

Adeeb, upon his return tonight, received a warm welcome at the airport from his closest friends.

MTD has extended gratitude to the government for allowing Adeeb to travel overseas for medical treatment, and the cooperation rendered in this regard.

Adeeb had been hospitalized on July 5, for what MTD called “a serious and life-threatening neurological condition”.

MTD said Adeeb was diagnosed with the condition after three years of solitary confinement, between 2015 and 2018.

Adeeb, once the right-hand man of former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, had been sentenced to 20 years in prison in October 2020, in connection to the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) embezzlement and money laundering scandal. He also received a fine of MVR 2 million.

Despite the prison sentence against him, Adeeb had been under home confinement since 2020, based on medical grounds and his plea agreement with the state. 

He has not paid the fines imposed on him to date, subsequent to which the Attorney General’s Office has initiated a civil suit to recover the money at the Civil Court.