Speaker questions authenticity of Yameen’s assassination attempt

Parliament Speaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla has questioned whether the assassination attempt on former President Abdul Yameen Abdul Gayoom was a dramatized ploy of the former president or not.

During his interview to SanguTV on Tuesday evening, Abdul Raheem had severely criticized is former ally. The Speaker raised questions about the bombing of the president’s speedboat, ‘Finifenmaa’, on September 28, 2015.

“I sometimes do wonder whether the speedboat bombing was a dramatized stunt by Yameen or not. His statements have gone to that extent now,” Abdul Raheem said.

Recalling the incident, Abdul Raheem claimed the former president had seen a man wearing a blue t-shirt when he looked towards the pier where the explosion in the speedboat took place. The Speaker further said that Yameen had informed he was aware that the man in the blue t-shirt had detonated the bomb.

Abdul Raheem added the man in the t-shirt was former Male’ Area Commander, Captain Ahmed Fayaz Ali Riza (Papa), whom Yameen had pointed out amid the chaos.

“Yameen said that at the time of the explosion, he had not received intelligence reports for six months. Today when [former Police Commissioner] Hussain Waheed is seen among the ranks of Yameen’s close allies, it begs you to question if the bombing on the speedboat has been a stunt led by Yameen,” Abdul Raheem added.

Back then, Abdul Raheem, along with other MPs of the parliament, had believed Yameen’s accounts of the incident, the incumbent Speaker said.

Yameen’s former ally claims the ex-president’s claims about the incident during his administration and more recently do not match, resulting in the potential foul play according to Abdul Raheem.

Former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb, Fayaz (Papa) and two of Yameen’s bodyguards faced, and were subsequently convicted of criminal charges in the bombing incident.

High Court however, had overturned the lower court’s judgement in the case and ordered a retrial.

The Prosecutor General’s Office earlier in May said that the state did not intend on seeking retrial against any of the suspects again.