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Maldivian nightmare ends for Sri Lankan hounded by deadly claims
After being held by the Maldivians authrities for months on cooked up charges, Lahiru Madhushanka, 30, was set free from the Dhooni prison on Wednesday. He was reunited with his family after 37 months in custody over an alleged plot to assassinate former President Abdulla Yameen. Yamen was ousted in the September elections after a five-year term.
Lahiru Madhushanka: Back home after his ordeal in the Maldives. Pic by Priyantha Wickramaarachchi
“I never thought that I would be released, but the Maldivian government changed after the elections,’’ Mr Madhushanka told the Sunday Times at his residence at Malabe. His house was packed with his friends and relatives. Mr Madhushanka who had served as an executive of a leading private bank for more than six years had opted for a job in the Maldives in 2015 after one of his local friends said he could earn more by engaging in a business of importing dried fish to Sri Lanka.
He took off in two weeks on October 22, 2015 after quitting his job, and as arranged, he was due to meet a Maldivian partner at a hotel in Male, but the contact introduced by his friend never turned up. Thereafter he had called his friend and been told to return to Sri Lanka as early as possible.
“I went to the Male Airport the following day to confirm the ticket, but persons claiming to be from the intelligence unit said they wanted to question me. They were in civvies and when I argued with them, they said they had some reports about me and wanted to question me,’’ he said.
“Later, they told me that I was part of a plot to assassinate the then president. They were trying to obtain a statement saying that the former vice president and three other Maldivian nationals were planning to assassinate President Yameen,’’ he said. He refused to give such a statement and was detained for 18 months without trial. “After 18 months I was produced in court, but I could not follow what was going on as it was all in the Maldivian language. I demanded an interpreter and through him I informed court on how I was ill treated while in detention,’’ he said.
“While in detention I managed to pick up a few words here and there and was able to understand what was going on in court. One of the claims they made was that I was a sniper, but I denied the charge. I had nothing to dowith the army,’’ he said. He said he denied allegations that he was involved in a plot to assassinate the president.
He was treated like a convicted prisoner and had been denied an opportunity to communicate with his family in the first 18 months.
There were several attempts to implicate him in the assassination plot, by even publishing pictures which were fabricated, he said, adding that one such picture showed him training on a water-scooter, indicating that he was trying to ram the boat of the president. Another doctored picture showed him sitting in close proximity of President Yameen at a dinner.
He said Minister Faizer Musthapha visited him and made an initiative to secure his release, while the government made unsuccessful attempts.
He was released on Wednesday when the court decided that there was no evidence to prosecute him. Mr Musthapha accompanied Mr Madhushanka back to Sri Lanka. “I am lucky that I escaped from these allegations. I am now trying to re-join the bank I served in and get on with my life,” he said.