Maldives arrests VP over plot to kill president

Maldivian authorities on Saturday said they had arrested the nation's Vice President Ahmed Adeeb over an alleged plot to assassinate President Abdulla Yameen, who escaped death after his boat was hit by a bomb last month.

VP Adheeb under arrest and held in Dhoonidhoo Detention (prison island), Home Minister Umar Naseer said on Twitter, using a different spelling of the vice president's name. Charges: high treason. 

Adeeb, 33, was arrested at the Maldives' main international airport located on a small islet near the capital island of Male at around noon local time (0700 GMT) Saturday as he returned home from Singapore.

Maldivian police confirmed his detention was linked to an investigation into the September 28 blast aboard Yameen's speedboat, which left the leader unhurt but his wife and two others slightly injured.

Vice President Ahmed Adeeb has been arrested under a court warrant for the investigation into the explosion aboard the presidential speedboat, Maldivian police said on Twitter and an official website.

Adeeb was unceremoniously escorted away by police as he disembarked from a Singapore Airlines flight, with a coastguard boat taking him to the nearby prison island of Dhoonidhoo.

Dozens of Adeeb's supporters who had arrived at the official jetty in Male to greet him were turned back by police in the tiny one-square-mile (2.5 square-kilometre) capital island.

Authorities said they were preparing to deploy soldiers and police to maintain calm following the arrest.

Security in Male has been tightened, police spokesman Abdulla Nawaz told reporters in the capital. Police won't allow any violence in the capital city. Both police and the army will be deployed to patrol the streets of Male.

Official sources said four of the vice president's associates were arrested shortly before Adeeb's detention and were also being held on the prison island.

Yameen appointed Adeeb as his deputy three months ago after impeaching his original running mate Mohamed Jameel on charges of treason.

He had changed the Maldives' constitution to reduce the permissible age of a vice president from 35 to 30 so that the 33-year-old Adeeb could be given the job.

Adeeb, who had a meteoric rise in politics, was also a hate figure for the country's main opposition, which accused him of sending underworld gangs to launch attacks against dissidents.