AP Interview: Maldives ex-president says debt under audit

Ex-Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed said Thursday that the country is seeking to reduce the more than USD 3 billion he estimates it could owe China, some of which he said came in the form of "ill-gotten wealth" for the previous government of President Yameen Abdul Gayoom.

A close adviser to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and candidate for parliamentary elections in April, Nasheed spoke to The Associated Press at a climate change lecture in New Delhi, a day after Maldives' top prosecutor charged Yameen with money laundering.

The charges are linked to USD 1 million allegedly found in Yameen's bank account from a shady government deal to lease islands for tourist development in the Maldives, which is famous for its luxury resorts.

Yameen lost last September's presidential election after a five-year term during which he was accused of corruption and misrule.

Nasheed, who became the Maldives' first democratically elected president in 2008, said an investigation of Yameen for suspected international money laundering is continuing.

"We don't think that we have seen USD 3.4 billion of assets created," he said, "so therefore it will be very difficult for us to pay that back." Nasheed, long an outspoken critic of the "debt trap" resulting from Chinese loans to the Indian Ocean archipelago nation, said an audit will determine "what actually came into the country."