Maldives ex-vice president detained after India escape bid

Colombo, Aug 5 (AFP) Former Maldives vice president Ahmed Adeeb, who faces attempted murder and corruption allegations, was remanded in custody Monday over a failed attempt to illegally enter neighbouring India. Adeeb was detained by Indian authorities on Thursday at the country's southern port of Tuticorin and handed to Maldivian police.

Adeeb is understood to have travelled clandestinely to India aboard a foreign tugboat, with its Indonesian and Indian crew reportedly alerting Tuticorin authorities of his presence. After being returned to the capital Male, he was arrested on Monday on a charge of illegally leaving the country and held in jail.

The ex-deputy leader will remain in custody until a court hearing over the incident, police said. Adeeb was released from a Maldives jail in May after a court quashed a conviction for attempting to kill then-president Abdulla Yameen in 2015.

But he is due to face a new trial over the case and is also under investigation for corruption dating back to when he was deputy to Yameen, who was defeated in an election last year. The Maldives government had seized his passport during the probes. (AFP) SCY

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