COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s former president Ranil Wickremesinghe has been arrested over allegations of misusing government funds, according to police. The accusations are linked to overseas trips he made during his presidency.
Wickremesinghe is expected to appear in a Colombo magistrate’s court on Friday. He had earlier provided a statement to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).
He served as president from 2022 to 2024, assuming office amid the nation’s worst economic crisis, which forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign and flee the country. Wickremesinghe was widely recognized for initiating the country’s economic recovery efforts.
A veteran politician, Wickremesinghe also served six non-consecutive terms as prime minister since the 1990s. BBC Sinhala reports that during his presidency, the 76-year-old made 23 international trips costing the state over Rs 600 million (approximately $2 million or £1.4 million).
The specific charge tied to his arrest involves a 2023 stopover in the UK on his return from a G77 summit in Cuba. During that visit, he and his wife reportedly attended a University of Wolverhampton event. Authorities claim it was a personal visit funded by public money, an allegation Wickremesinghe denies.
The investigation began in June and is now being pursued in court. He is the first former Sri Lankan president to be arrested. Wickremesinghe, a lawyer from a wealthy political family, first entered parliament in 1977 and has been a key figure in Sri Lankan politics for decades.
As leader of the United National Party (UNP) since 1994, he introduced reforms aimed at cleaning up the party’s image. Despite repeated attempts to become president, he only achieved the role in 2022 under extraordinary circumstances, at a time when his party held just one seat in parliament—his own.
(Inputs from BBC)
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