Former President Abdulla Yameen, who is currently serving a jail sentence in a corruption case, will be questioned in connection with the disappearance and murder of a journalist. The disappearance and death commission (DDCom), set up by the government to investigate the disappearance and deaths of several people during the time of the Yameen government, has summoned Yameen for questioning.
  
While Yameen is currently under house arrest, he has been asked to present himself for questioning today in connection with the disappearance and death of journalist Ahmad Rilwan in 2014, according to a report in Raajje TV. 

Dr. Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, Yameen’s lawyer and former vice president who was impeached by parliament, claimed that this was an effort to cover DDCom's failures following pressure from the public. He said that his client was being used as a fall guy and that the incumbent administration aims to oppress Yameen in “every possible way”.

Yameen has long been complaining of political vendetta by the current government despite being convicted in a multi-million MMPRC scandal, which also landed his former vice president Ahmed Adeeb in prison for 20 years. 

Rilwan disappeared in 2014 and police took two years to acknowledge his disappearance. The commission has been investigating the disappearance and death of 20 people, all of them had gone missing during Yameen’s regime. 

In 2019, the commission claimed he was killed by an unidentified extremist group and his body was dumped in the sea. 

The commission has since revealed links to the journalist's death to two other high-profile murders in recent history. This includes the 2012 murder of lawmaker Dr. Afrasheem Ali and the 2017 stabbing of blogger and Rilwan's close friend, Yameen Rasheed.

Two of the men accused of abducting Rilwan was acquitted in 2018; one of these suspects is the owner of the red car believed to have been used to abduct the journalist, with investigators saying that DNA analysis of hairs lifted from the trunk of the car matched that of Rilwan’s mother.

A foreign crime investigator has also been included in the investigations.

(SAM)