The then government did not enforce the death penalty for the traitors involved in the 1988 coup attempt in order to avoid reprisal from family members, former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom revealed Thursday.
A few local businessmen assisted by armed mercenaries of a Tamil secessionist organisation from Sri Lanka, the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) had attempted to overthrow Gayoom's government on November 3, 1988.
Speaking during an exclusive interview with privately run Villa TV, the former president said the statements from both the locals and the foreign mercenaries had revealed that the attack had been planned months in advance.
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 the capital 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.
As the Maldives marked 28 years since the attack on Thursday, Gayoom said he had commuted the death sentences to life imprisonment in fear of reprisal from families of the coup plotters.
"The then Sri Lankan government was battling Tamil separatists. So we had to consider a possible retaliatory attack if we were to sentence a group of their fellow Tamils. So we negotiated with the Sri Lankan government and opted instead to serve their sentences in Sri Lanka prison. A few Maldivians were also sentenced to death. But I thought it would not be in our best interest to execute them. Because their children or grandchildren would carry it with them. So I thought it could prove a problem for us in the future. I thought they could harbour hatred and vengeance against the government. So after thinking long and hard, I decided to commute their death sentences to life imprisonment," Gayoom explained.
