President Abdulla Yameen was unharmed in the blast on his speed boat which authorities described as an assassination attempt. The September 28 explosion left his wife and two others slightly injured.
The Maldives government insisted Sunday its president had survived an assassination attempt on his boat even though the FBI found no evidence of a bomb blast.
Home Minister Umar Naseer said he had received a report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which found no evidence that a bomb caused the explosion.
But Naseer described the US agency’s report as “inconclusive”, adding that Saudi Arabian and Sri Lankan investigators had confirmed the likelihood of a bomb.
Police arrested vice president Ahmed Adeeb nearly a month later for treason as he returned to the Indian Ocean archipelago from an official trip abroad.
The arrest followed a series of sackings of government officials including Yameen’s defence minister, which have fuelled concerns of political instability and further damaged the Maldives’ image as an upmarket tourist destination.
After a review of evidence, the FBI found that debris from the blast, first considered possible remnants of a bomb, were in fact parts of the boat, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
“There is no conclusive evidence to attribute the explosion on the boat to an IED,” a Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman told the journal.
The US agency, which had been asked to assist in the investigation, had examined the scene of the blast and chemical trace testing, it said.
The Maldives has faced tough international criticism over the jailing in March of its first democratically elected leader Mohamed Nasheed, after a rushed trial that the UN said was seriously flawed.The vice-president of the Maldives has been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate the president, say police and officials.
Ahmed Adeeb was in detention and being charged with high treason, Home Minister Umar Naseer said on Twitter.
President Abdulla Yameen narrowly escaped injury when a blast struck the boat he was using to return home from the airport late last month.
In recent years, the Maldives has been rocked by political infighting.
Mr Yameen's election has been the subject of drawn-out wrangling.
Security has been tightened in the capital Male amid fears of "turmoil" triggered by the arrest, says the Maldivian newspaper Haveeru.
"By early morning Saturday, lorries loaded with policemen and soldiers were seen on nearly every street," it reports.
Three others were also arrested on Saturday - including a former member of Adeeb's security detail and a member of the army's bomb squad, Associated Press news agency reported.
The Maldives Independent website said Mr Adeeb's arrest had "surprised and enthralled many Maldivians".
They had been to the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
The president was unhurt, but his wife and and a number of others were injured when the device went off under a seat normally - but not in this instance - occupied by Mr Yameen.
Soon after the blast, speculation began to grow that Mr Adeeb was involved, reports say. Under the Maldivian constitution, the vice-president succeeds the president if he dies, is incapacitated or resigns.
Officials described the attack as an assassination attempt and had arrested two senior police officers - a week after the president fired his defence minister.
But on Saturday Mr Adeeb too was arrested at the airport as he returned from an official overseas visit "on suspicion of involvement in the boat blast", police spokesman Ismail Ali told AP.
Home Minister Naseer said he was being held on a prison island.
Mr Adeeb, who has denied any links to the explosion, had only been vice-president for three months.
He came to office when the previous vice-president was sacked by Mr Yameen, also on charges of treason.
Yameen, who came to power in November 2013 following a controversial election, faces international censure over his crackdown on political dissent, including on supporters of opposition leader Nasheed.
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