Ranil Wickremesinghe: Sri Lanka’s former president arrested
How did your country report this? Share your view in the comments.
Diverging Reports Breakdown
Former Sri Lankan President Wickremesinghe arrested on allegations of misusing state funds
Sri Lankan police have arrested former president Ranil Wickremesinghe over allegations of misusing public funds. He was arrested on allegations of using public funds to attend his wife’s graduation ceremony in London after an official visit to the U.S. He is the first Sri Lankan former head of state to be arrested. He served as the island nation’s president from 2022 to 2024.
FILE -Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe inspects a military guard of honour after arriving at the parliamentary complex in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Aug. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, File)
FILE -Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe inspects a military guard of honour after arriving at the parliamentary complex in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Aug. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, File)
FILE -Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe inspects a military guard of honour after arriving at the parliamentary complex in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Aug. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, File)
FILE -Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe inspects a military guard of honour after arriving at the parliamentary complex in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Aug. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, File)
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka police on Friday arrested the country’s former president and senior opposition politician Ranil Wickremesinghe over allegations of misusing public funds during his tenure as president, an aide said.
Wickremesinghe, who served as the island nation’s president from 2022 to 2024, was arrested on allegations of using public funds to attend his wife’s graduation ceremony in London after an official visit to the U.S.
Wickremesinghe is the first Sri Lankan former head of state to be arrested.
One of his aides told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity that Wickremesinghe has been taken to a court after being arrested by the Financial Crimes Investigations Department.
Former Sri Lankan president arrested for corruption
Ranil Wickremesinghe, 76, is the highest-ranking opposition figure to be detained in an anti-corruption crackdown initiated by the new leftist government. He was taken into custody after police questioned him about a visit he made to London in September 2023 to attend a ceremony in honor of his wife. His office had previously denied that he abused his position to visit London. Key opposition politicians, including two former senior ministers, have been jailed for up to 25 years for corruption since the new government took office. Several members of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s family have also been charged with misusing state funds and are being prosecuted.
Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption units have been leading this crackdown since President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office in September, promising to combat corruption.
Wickremesinghe, 76, who lost the last election to Dissanayake, was taken into custody after police questioned him about a visit he made to London in September 2023 to attend a ceremony at a British university in honor of his wife, according to a police detective speaking to AFP.
“We are producing him before the Colombo Fort magistrate,” the officer said, adding that they were pressing charges for using state resources for personal purposes.
Wickremesinghe had stopped in London in 2023 on his way back from Havana, where he attended a G77 summit.
His office had previously denied that he abused his position to visit London.
Three of his then senior aides were questioned this month by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
He and his wife, Maithree, attended a University of Wolverhampton ceremony where she was conferred an honorary professorship.
Wickremesinghe had maintained that his wife’s travel expenses were met by her and that no state funds were used.
However, the CID alleged that Wickremesinghe used government money for his travel on a private visit and that his bodyguards were also paid by the state.
Wickremesinghe became president in July 2022 for the remainder of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s term after Rajapaksa stepped down following months of street protests over alleged corruption and mismanagement.
Wickremesinghe secured a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in early 2023 and was credited with stabilising the economy after the country’s worst-ever financial meltdown in 2022.
He doubled taxes and removed energy subsidies as part of tough austerity measures to raise state revenue.
He lost his re-election bid in September but remained a key opposition figure despite his coalition holding only two seats in the 225-member parliament.
Members of Wickremesinghe’s United National Party were seen arriving at the Colombo Fort magistrate’s court, where he was due to be taken later on Friday.
Key opposition politicians, including two former senior ministers, have been jailed for up to 25 years for corruption since the new leftist government took office.
Several members of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s family have also been charged with misusing state funds and are being prosecuted. Many of them are currently on bail pending court hearings.
Dissanayake’s government earlier this month impeached the police chief after accusing him of running a criminal network that supported politicians. The prisons chief was also jailed for corruption.
AFP
Former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe arrested over alleged misuse of funds
Ranil Wickremesinghe arrested on allegations of misusing state funds. He is facing three charges linked to overseas trips during his presidency. His arrest marks the first time a former Sri Lankan president has been detained. The 76-year-old undertook 23 foreign trips while in office, reportedly costing over Rs 600 million ($2 million/£1.4 million) The arrest specifically pertains to a 2023 stopover in the UK after attending a G77 summit in Cuba.
Having served as president from 2022 to 2024, Wickremesinghe assumed office amid the island’s worst economic crisis, which had led to widespread protests and the ousting of his predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He is credited with steering the country towards economic recovery during his tenure.
According to BBC Sinhala, the 76-year-old undertook 23 foreign trips while in office, reportedly costing over Rs 600 million ($2 million/£1.4 million). The arrest specifically pertains to a 2023 stopover in the UK after attending a G77 summit in Cuba. During this visit, Wickremesinghe and his wife attended a University of Wolverhampton ceremony, which the CID alleges was a personal trip funded by state resources. Wickremesinghe has denied the accusations.
The investigation into the alleged misuse of funds was first referred to court in June.
Wickremesinghe, a lawyer by profession, has been a central figure in Sri Lankan politics since his election as an MP in 1977. He served as prime minister six times from the 1990s onwards and became leader of the United National Party (UNP) in 1994, where he implemented reforms to combat corruption within the party.
Despite numerous attempts to secure the presidency, Wickremesinghe only achieved the role in 2022 after Rajapaksa fled the country. At the time, his party had been almost entirely wiped out in the 2020 elections, leaving him as its sole parliamentary representative. He lost the 2024 presidential election to left-leaning candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake but remains a prominent and controversial figure in Sri Lankan politics.
Former Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe arrested on misuse of funds charges
Ranil Wickremesinghe was arrested in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capitol, while giving a statement. He’s been facing multiple government investigations into widespread bribery and corruption. The charge in his arrest was for using public funds for his personal travel. He made 23 foreign trips during his time as president, at a cost of more than $2 million, according to BBC Sinhala.. He served as president from 2022 to 2024, stepping into the role after the country’s worst ever economic crisis triggered a popular uprising that caused his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee. The government alleged that it was a personal trip for which about $56,000 of public money was used.
Aug. 22 (UPI) — Sri Lanka’s former president was arrested Friday for the alleged misuse of public funds, police said.
Ranil Wickremesinghe was arrested in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capitol, while giving a statement to the country’s Criminal Investigations Department. He’s been facing multiple government investigations into widespread bribery and corruption. The charge in his arrest was for using public funds for his personal travel.
Friday’s arrest was about a detour Wickremesinghe, 76, made to Britain in 2023 on his way back to Sri Lanka from an official visit to the United States. He made the stop to attend an awards ceremony for his wife, Maithree Wickremesinghe, who was awarded an honorary professorship from the University of Wolverhampton. The government alleged that it was a personal trip for which about $56,000 of public money was used.
Wickremesinghe was widely credited with helping put the country back on the road to economic recovery. He also served six separate terms as prime minister since the 1990s.
He made 23 foreign trips during his time as president, at a cost of more than $2 million, according to BBC Sinhala.
He served as president from 2022 to 2024, stepping into the role after the country’s worst ever economic crisis triggered a popular uprising that caused his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee.
Wickremesinghe’s arrest is the most high-profile case since the National People’s Power, a leftist coalition, won the presidential election in September. Its leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake became president. Dissanayake, 56, campaigned on a promise of weeding out corruption and prosecuting those who had misused public funds.
In 2019, Sri Lanka fell into a downward spiral, partly driven by poor policymaking by the government of Rajapaksa that depleted foreign reserves and eventually forced the country to default on its debt. Terrorist bombings in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic, which crushed tourism, also eroded the domestic economy.
By 2022, when Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves ran so low that it couldn’t buy fuel, public anger led to protests and the ouster of Rajapaksa.
As president, Wickremesinghe helped secure an International Monetary Fund bailout in 2023. But the deal required austerity measures. Those unpopular policies, a growing sense among people that he was part of the old guard, and discomfort that he was close to Rajapaksa, led Sri Lankans to reject him during last year’s elections.
From presidency to police custody – Who is Ranil Wickremesinghe?
Ranil Wickremesinghe was Sri Lanka’s former President and leader of the United National Party. He was in office from 21 July 2022 until 23 September 2024, after he failed to win re-election. His arrest is linked to allegations that he misused state funds to cover expenses for a private visit to London during his presidency. He has been directly implicated in the Batalanda scandal, with the Commission stating that he had knowledge of the torture and unlawful detentions that took place at the infamous housing scheme. He made headlines earlier this year after a disastrous interview on Al Jazeera English’s Head to Head, in which he floundered over questions on war crimes, enforced disappearances, and his defence of war criminals such as Shavendra Silva. He threatened to walk out several times during the interview, the first eight minutes into the hour-long discussion, and repeatedly refused to answer questions with regards to accountability, including on his own role in alleged crimes. It was under the Jayewardene regime that Tamils would suffer from horrific losses during the anti-Tamil Black July pogrom.
In the midst of the Aragayala protests of 2022, which saw the ousting of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, he was appointed Prime Minister and subsequent to Rajapaksa’s resignation, he assumed the presidency, despite not holding a single seat in Sri Lanka’s parliament.
He was in office from 21 July 2022 until 23 September 2024, after he failed to win re-election, finishing in third place in the presidential polls.
Why was he arrested?
The recent arrest is linked to allegations that Wickremesinghe misused state funds to cover expenses for a private visit to London during his presidency, where he attended a university graduation ceremony of his wife, Professor Maithree Wickremesinghe.
Investigators claim the London trip, which was incorporated into a wider overseas tour, did not include official engagements but was financed with government money. Earlier this month, Wickremesinghe’s former presidential secretary Saman Ekanayake and former private secretary Sandra Perera were questioned over their roles in arranging the visit.
A long political history
Wickremesinghe has a long history in Sri Lankan politics. He held his first government posts under the administration of his uncle J.R Jayewardene, where he served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and then Minister of Youth Affairs & Employment. It was under the Jayewardene regime that Tamils would suffer from horrific losses during the anti-Tamil Black July pogrom; thousands of Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the then UNP government and state forces.
As Sri Lankan president, Ranil Wickremesinghe has been slammed by human rights critics who have noted a host of repressive legislations that he sought to implement to silence dissent as well as the crackdown on protests and memorialisations. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a damning report detailing these issues at length as well as the intimidation and sexual violence perpetrated by Sri Lanka’s security forces against Tamils journalists and political activists.
An infamous Al Jazeera interview
Earlier this year, Wickremesinghe made headlines once more after a disastrous interview on Al Jazeera English’s Head to Head, in which he floundered over questions on war crimes, enforced disappearances, and his defence of war criminals such as Shavendra Silva.
Wickremesinghe, who visibly struggled under scrutiny from Head to Head host Mehdi Hasan, has now claimed that the interview was unfairly edited and accused two members of the panel of having links to the LTTE, despite the fact that his main clashes were with Hasan himself.
He threatened to walk out several times during the interview, the first just eight minutes into the hour-long discussion, and repeatedly refused to answer questions with regards to accountability, including on his own role in alleged crimes.
The Batalanda Commission Report
Following his Al Jazeera interview, the Sri Lankan government formally tabled the long-suppressed Batalanda Commission Report in Parliament, reigniting discussions on the alleged torture chambers and human rights violations that took place during the 1988–1990 period.
The Batalanda Commission was established in 1995 by then-Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, with the task of investigating the illegal detention, torture, assassinations, and disappearances that took place at the infamous Batalanda Housing Scheme. The final report was handed over to Kumaratunga in 1998 and published as a sessional paper in 2000, but its recommendations were never implemented.
Wickremesinghe has been directly implicated in the Batalanda scandal, with the Commission stating that he had knowledge of the torture and unlawful detentions that took place.
During the commission hearings, several witnesses directly implicated Ranil Wickremesinghe, alleging that:
• He facilitated the creation of the illegal detention centre at Batalanda.
• He provided political cover for the security forces operating there.
• He personally visited the Batalanda site, where detainees were tortured and killed.
Despite mounting evidence, no legal action was taken against Wickremesinghe. The commission ultimately ruled that he bore “political responsibility” for Batalanda’s operations but did not recommend prosecution, allowing him to continue his political career.
When confronted with a government inquiry naming him as a “main architect” of securing the site by Mehdi Hasan, Wickremesinghe first denied the report’s existence, before backtracking and questioning its validity.
“Where is the report?” he remarked with his hands folded. “I deny all those allegations… where is that commission?”
“There is nothing to be found against me… I am telling you there is no report.”
Tamil Families of the Disappeared
Wickremesinghe has also gained the ire of Tamils through his callous remarks towards Tamil Families of the Disappeared. In 2016, he triggered outrage as he twice claimed that the thousands of Tamils that surrendered during the final phase of the armed conflict or were forcibly disappeared Tamils were“most probably dead”.
He offered no explanation as to who killed them or why they had died but simply told Tamils in Kilinochchi that they should “forget the past and move forward”.
Tamils have criticised the Office of Missing Persons, which was established under the Sirisena administration, in which Wickremesinghe had served as Prime Minister, as a scam. In 2022, the UN High Commissioner highlighted that the OMP “has not been able to trace a single disappeared person or clarify the fate of the disappeared in meaningful ways”.
The latest OHCHR report further details the intimidation and sexual violence suffered by activists supporting the Tamil Families of the Disappeared in pursuit of their loved ones.
Defending the military and rejecting international accountability
Wickremesinghe has also consistently stated his opposition to any international accountability mechanism for violations of international humanitarian law, even claiming that his government’s ability to postpone UN resolutions “saved Mahinda Rajapaksa from the electric chair”. He also claimed to have saved members of the government from being hauled before the International Criminal Court.
“We will never accept an international war crimes tribunal,” he told Sri Lanka’s parliament in 2016. “I never approved the Rome Statute. Sovereignty lies with the people according to our Constitution.”
He would reiterate how it was throughout his tenure that Sri Lanka “refused to sign the Rome Statute which established the ICC” and how he “has no desire to send soldiers to any court”.
Alongside stating how he would “never betray the forces,” Wickremesinghe has close ties to those accused of mass atrocities.
Speaking on Shavendra Silva, the current head of the Sri Lankan army who is barred from entry to the USA due to his role in the execution of Tamils, Wickremesinghe said, “I have no problem with Shavendra Silva. He is my friend, and he has helped me a lot.”
In 2018, Wickremesinghe appeared at a defence conference alongside Sri Lanka’s chief of defence staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, just a day after a Colombo court had ordered his arrest for allegedly helping the main suspect in the abduction and murder case of 11 Tamil youths evade arrest.
A staunch Sinhala Buddhist
During his tenure as president, Wickremesinghe has consistently upheld the Sinhala Buddhist nature of the Sri Lankan state, pledging that any constitution for the island would ensure Buddhism continues to hold the “foremost” place and denying there would be any federal solution to the ethnic conflict.
Easter Sunday attacks
Wickremesinghe has faced a wave of criticism following the Easter Sunday bombings. He admitted that the Government of India had alerted Sri Lanka’s Police intelligence service of the Easter Sunday attacks hours prior to the incident however the police failed to act.
He also admitted the government’s “failure” to ensure security which could have prevented the Easter Sunday bombings which killed over 250 people across the island.
Speaking to Sky News, Ranil said there had been a “breakdown in government machinery” with intelligence not being passed on to himself and other ministers
“If we had known the information and we had not acted then I would certainly say the government had to be held responsible and [should] leave office.”
However, in an interview with Channel 4, Wickremesinghe evaded his responsibility as prime minister in ensuring security, and laid the blame at the feet of the president.