Ex-VP Adeeb undergoes surgery in Singapore

The former Maldivian vice president Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Gayoom underwent surgery in Singapore on Friday, according to his party, the Maldives Third-Way Democrats (MTD).

Adeeb travelled to Singapore for medical treatment on July 11, hours after the Maldives 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 to August 28, last week.

MTD tweeted on Friday that Adeeb was undergoing surgery following a medical checkup.

Adeeb had been hospitalized at the IGMH in Male’ on July 5, for what his party called “a serious and life-threatening neurological condition”.

MTD said Adeeb’s medical condition is believed to be directly linked to complications he faced as a result 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 had pled guilty to seven charges under a plea deal with the state, which reduced the charges against him from 30.

Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem had commented back then that investigators had collected enough evidence against Adeeb to press more than 150 charges, which would put him behind bars for 806 years.

After the plea deal, Adeeb served as a state witness in Yameen’s trial.

Despite the prison sentence against him, Adeeb had been under home confinement since 2020, based on medical grounds.

He was escorted to Singapore by officials from police and Correctional Service.