Malta has “unwittingly hosted a killer” by welcoming Maldives vice-president Ahmed Adeeb on an official visit last week, a Maldivian activist and former prisoner of conscience has claimed.
Speaking to Times of Malta from Switzerland, Ibrahim Lutfy said the vice-president was a prime suspect in the murder of parliamentarian Afraahseem Ali in 2012 and the disappearance of journalist Ahmed Rilwan last year.
“Adeeb is a tool of those who want to return the country to dictatorship,” Mr Lutfy said.
“He is young and uneducated, and only came to power after the constitution was changed to remove elections for the post of vice-president.”
Mr Adeeb returned to the Maldives on Wednesday after a four-day official visit, during which he met with President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech and Finance Minister Edward Scicluna.
His visit comes ahead of Malta’s hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November, and also included meetings with the CHOGM taskforce and former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi. Dr Gonzi had been requested by the Commonwealth’s Secretary General to draw up a report on the separation of powers in the Maldives and to submit recommendations for reform.
The vice-president has faced heavy scrutiny since his appointment earlier this year. Various reports in international media cite links to drug trafficking, gang violence and radical Islamists.
He was implicated in the murder of Afraahseem Ali, Mr Lutfy said, by the man currently standing trial for the murder, who is widely considered a scapegoat.
Mr Lutfy, who previously served as human rights envoy to the UN in Geneva, was sentenced to life in prison because of articles he had written critical of the regime. He suffered torture and eventually escaped to Switzerland, where he was granted political asylum.
He told this newspaper the situation in the country had deteriorated rapidly, with several Opposition members jailed or forced into exile, and heavy control of the courts and newspapers.
The Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, is best known as a destination for luxury holidays but has a long history of military dictatorship which tourists rarely glimpse.
Last April, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for a travel ban to be imposed on members of the government and their business supporters if the human rights situation continued to deteriorate.
The resolution also calls for urgent democratic reform and the release of Mohamed Nasheed, the first democratically elected president of the Maldives, who was imprisoned by the regime earlier this year.
When contacted for a reaction, a spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech said the encounter was a brief courtesy meeting.
The spokesman would not say whether the human rights situation in the Maldives was discussed, and said the meeting addressed “developments in the context of the Commonwealth and the upcoming CHOGM”.
The Commonwealth has regularly faced questions over the human rights conduct of many of its member states.
Malta had volunteered to host November’s summit after Mauritius pulled out in protest over the decision to hold the 2013 gathering in Sri Lanka, which is accused of widespread human rights violations.