A Maldives court has issued a warrant for the arrest of the mastermind behind the 1988 coup attempt in the Maldives.
Abdulla Luthfee was sentenced to death for attempting to overthrow former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s government in the 1988 plot, assisted by armed mercenaries of a Tamil secessionist organisation from Sri Lanka, the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE).
Luthfee had escaped from the authorities while on a medical trip abroad.
Former president Mohamed Nasheed's government had authorised Luthfee to go to India in 2009 for medical treatment and he was supposed to return back by January 2010.
Authorities suspect that Luthfee is currently living in neighbouring Sri Lanka under a false identity.
Eighty Tamil mercenaries landed on Male’ on November 3, 1988, and quickly took over the airport. However they were caught in a shoot out with military forces in Male’ and were forced to retreat after India deployed paratroopers to the Maldives on Gayoom’s request. Nineteen Maldivians were killed in the gun fire.
Gayoom however, commuted Luthfee's death sentences to life imprisonment.
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