Confirming the arrest for the first time, police said in a statement early last month that the 27-year-old man was arrested on October 24. He has been remanded by the Criminal Court.

Some Sri Lankan media outlets have even reported that the man was an importer of Maldives dry fish. The Sunday Times identified the sniper as 24-year-old Lahiru Madhushanka.

In a separate report published on this week’s edition, The Sunday Times reported that Sri Lankan lawyer Shabdika Vellampil had been assigned to represent Madhushanka. He would be travel to the Maldives next week, the report said.

The newspaper quoted lawyer Vellampil as saying that the Maldivian foreign ministry had promised to arrange a business visa for his visit so that he could make legal representations on behalf of his client.

“Earlier I visited the Maldives on a tourist visa to look into the case but there was little I could do because of the status of the visa. Next week I will be able to make a full representation,” he told the Sunday Times.

According to The Sunday Times, the lawyer said Sri Lanka’s defence authorities who carried out a full probe on the detained youth concluded that the youth did not have any criminal record; neither had he served in the police or the armed forces. The report was submitted to the Sri Lankan foreign ministry for follow-up action, the lawyer told the newspaper.

The Sunday Times also quoted the man’s parents as saying that their son had travelled to the Maldives to take up a job offered to him by a Maldivian. They told the newspaper that when he arrived in the Maldives the Maldivian who had paid a local agent US$ 900 to get their son had failed to show up and this led to his arrest by the Maldivian police.

“What we cannot understand is the action of the Maldivian who failed to show up and meet our son even after paying a tidy sum of money to a local agent,” the youth’s mother said.

Deputy foreign minister Harsha de Silva was quoted by the newspaper as saying that officials both in Colombo and Male were looking into the interests of the detained youth, but he did not elaborate.

Reports of the Sri Lankan sniper’s arrest came a day after Maldivian security forces confiscated assault rifles and hand guns in what has been the biggest weapons bust in the country’s history. The weapons had been seized from Hibilhadhoo island in Baa Atoll being developed as a resort.

The army had confirmed that two assault rifles found in the weapons bust belonged to the state armoury.

The items showcased during a press conference included several hand guns, a T56 assault rifle and a MP5 sub-machine gun. In addition, a large quantity of bomb making material were also displayed at the press briefing.

Maldives declared a month-long state of emergency last month after the discovery of a bomb near the presidential palace. The state of emergency was, however, later cut short after a week.

Maldives military had confirmed that the suspected device found in a vehicle parked near the presidential residence of Muliaage in capital Male was an improvised explosive device which had been subsequently been diffused.

The discovery of the IED came just over a month after an explosion aboard the presidential speedboat carrying President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom now confirmed as an attempt to kill the president.

President Yameen was unhurt but his spouse and two others were hurt in the explosion.

The primary suspect in the blast appears to be former Vice President Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor who was arrested on October 24 as soon as he arrived from an official trip to China.

He is accused of high treason, a charge he denies.

Parliament, meanwhile, had passed a no-confidence motion, effectively impeaching Adheeb.

The Sri Lankan sniper’s arrest affected the relations between the Maldives and Sri Lanka, which accused the Maldives of using historically warm bilateral ties to crackdown on Maldivian political and social media activists.

In a statement, Sri Lanka’s external affairs ministry had said Sri Lanka is deeply concerned about recent developments in the Maldives and events that have impacted on Sri Lanka, including the arrest of two Sri Lankan nationals in the Maldives and the questionable removal of a Maldivian social media activist who was in possession of a valid Sri Lankan visa. It is deeply disturbing that Sri Lanka, a country which has always maintained the closest friendly relations with the Maldives, is being used to initiate questionable action against political and social media activists, it added.

The condemnation by Sri Lanka came a day after it summoned the Maldives top representative in the country over the arrest and subsequent repatriation of a suspect wanted in connection to the recent blast on the presidential speedboat.

Ahmed Ashraf, known by his social media moniker of Shumba Gong, is a self-declared supporter of the embattled former vice president Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor.

Sri Lankan authorities arrested him on November 1 on the request of their Maldivian counterparts.

Ashraf was brought to Male the following morning. He was taken to the police detention centre in the island of Dhoonidhoo in Kaafu Atoll.

(haveeru.com.mv)