Former Maldives deputy leader Ahmed Adeeb has been jailed for 15 years for plotting to assassinate the president, the latest in a string of prosecutions of senior politicians and opposition figures in the troubled island nation. Adeeb was convicted late Thursday of attempting to kill President Abdulla Yameen by setting off a bomb on his speedboat last September, his lawyer said.
Two of the vice president's military bodyguards were also convicted after the trial, which was held behind closed doors. The verdicts mean almost all of Yameen's key rivals are in jail or exiled from the Maldives, a popular honeymoon destination that has been rocked by political turmoil in recent years. They come weeks after Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected president, was granted asylum in Britain.
Nasheed, whose legal team includes high-profile human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, was sentenced to 13 years in prison on controversial terrorism charges last year but was allowed to travel to Britain for surgery in January and was granted political asylum last month. Adeeb, 34, was considered a close confidant of Yameen until he was dramatically impeached in November following allegations he was trying to topple the president. Yameen escaped the blast unscathed, but his wife and two others were slightly injured. The FBI was called in to investigate the incident, but found no evidence the blast was caused by a bomb. Reporters were barred from attending the trial after the court invoked national security concerns and said it would not make the hearings or verdict public.
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