Downplaying speedboat explosion as ‘drama’ encourages future attempts: Umar

The former Minister of Home Affairs Umar Naseer has said the downplaying of the presidential speedboat explosion incident – the failed assassination attempt on former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom – by the Parliament Speaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla will encourage future stints similarly to it.

On Tuesday evening, the Speaker hinted the failed assassination attempt on Yameen on September 28, 2015, could have been a ‘dramatized’ ploy by the former President himself.

In response, Umar, who was the then Home Minister, spoke with ‘Sun’ Online claiming such statements was unbecoming of a senior government official like Abdul Raheem, and called it an irresponsible act.

Umar said such claims made by a “simple activist at a coffee table” was an entirely different scenario, which he added in this case, wasn’t adding such claims could set dangerous precedents.

“That is not the type of statements someone of his status should be making on live TV,” Umar said.

The ex-Home Minister further criticized Abdul Raheem’s statements directed at a former President, and attempting to purport such a heinous act might have been a ‘game’. Highlighting the seriousness of the incident, Umar recalled the criminal convictions in the case.

Umar said such downplaying of serious criminal activities could be viewed as an encouragement for future acts.

In his interview on a SanguTV program, Abdul Raheem said that he, along with other MPs of the parliament, had believed Yameen’s accounts of the incident.

Yameen’s former ally claimed the ex-president’s statements about the incident during his administration and more recently do not match, resulting in the potential foul play.

Former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb, and former Male’ area commander, Captain Ahmed Fayaz Ali Riza (Papa), along with two bodyguards were indicted and subsequently convicted of attempted murder in the bombing incident.

The High Court however, had overturned the lower court’s judgement and ordered a retrial in the case.

The Prosecutor General’s Office earlier in May this year, said that the state does not intend on seeking a retrial against anyone regarding the incident.