Former Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe arrested

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Police accidental the erstwhile person is accused of misuse of nationalist funds successful narration to a travel to London.

Published On 22 Aug 2025

Former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been arrested and appeared successful tribunal implicit allegations helium misused authorities funds portion successful office, constabulary say.

Wickremesinghe, 76, who led the state during a devastating 2019-2024 economical crisis, had been investigated implicit a sojourn helium made to London to be his wife’s graduation, section media reported connected Friday.

Police confirmed his apprehension for alleged misuse of nationalist funds.

“Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been arrested and produced successful court. We are awaiting the tribunal directive to determine what further steps request to beryllium taken,” a constabulary spokesperson said.

Sri Lanka’s anticorruption units person led a crackdown since President Anura Kumara Dissanayake came to powerfulness successful September connected a committedness to combat corruption.

A Wickremesinghe state from his United National Party (UNP) proclaimed his innocence and suggested the lawsuit was politically motivated.

“Ranil Wickremesinghe has ne'er misused nationalist funds oregon authorities funds,” UNP subordinate Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe told reporters extracurricular the tribunal analyzable successful Colombo wherever the erstwhile president appeared.

“He was the idiosyncratic who stepped up and accepted the situation to prevention this state erstwhile the system collapsed,” Warnasinghe said. “That is the idiosyncratic who is being treated similar this contiguous by this government.”

Travel expenses

Wickremesinghe had stopped successful London successful 2023 connected his mode backmost to Sri Lanka from Havana, wherever helium attended a G77 summit.

His bureau had antecedently denied that helium abused his presumption to sojourn London.

Three of his then-senior aides were questioned this period by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

He and his wife, Maithree, attended a University of Wolverhampton ceremony, wherever she received an honorary professorship.

Wickremesinghe had maintained that his wife’s question expenses were met by her and nary authorities funds were used.

However, the CID alleged that Wickremesinghe utilized authorities wealth for his question connected a backstage sojourn and his bodyguards were besides paid by the state.

Wickremesinghe became president successful July 2022 aft Gotabaya Rajapaksa stepped down pursuing months of thoroughfare protests implicit alleged corruption and mismanagement. Wickremesinghe mislaid powerfulness successful a 2024 election.

He secured a $2.9bn bailout from the International Monetary Fund successful aboriginal 2023 and was credited with stabilising the system aft Sri Lanka’s worst-ever fiscal meltdown successful 2022.

He doubled taxes and removed vigor subsidies arsenic portion of pugnacious austerity measures to rise authorities revenues.

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