By Sekaggya Seka Moses
Former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been arrested and produced in court over allegations of misusing state funds while in office.
The 76-year-old politician, who led the country during the devastating 2019-2024 economic crisis, was taken into custody by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Friday.
According to police, Wickremesinghe is accused of misusing public funds for a private trip to London in September 2023, where he attended his wife’s graduation ceremony at the University of Wolverhampton.
The CID alleged that Wickremesinghe used government money for his travel and that his bodyguards were also paid by the state.
Wickremesinghe had maintained that his wife’s travel expenses were met by her and that no state funds were used.
However, the CID investigation found that the former president had diverted state funds to cover the costs of his private trip.
Wickremesinghe had stopped in London in 2023 on his way back to Sri Lanka from Havana, where he attended a G77 summit.
His office had previously denied allegations of abuse of position to visit London. Three of his senior aides were questioned by the CID earlier this month in connection with the trip.
A Wickremesinghe ally from the United National Party (UNP) proclaimed his innocence and suggested that the case was politically motivated.
“Ranil Wickremesinghe has never misused public funds or state funds,” UNP member Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe said. “He was the person who stepped up and accepted the challenge to save this country when the economy collapsed.”
Wickremesinghe became president in July 2022 after Gotabaya Rajapaksa stepped down following months of street protests over alleged corruption and mismanagement.
During his tenure, Wickremesinghe implemented austerity measures, including doubling taxes and removing energy subsidies, to raise state revenues.
He also secured a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund in early 2023, which helped stabilize the economy after Sri Lanka’s worst-ever financial meltdown in 2022.
Wickremesinghe lost power in a 2024 election and was succeeded by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who has vowed to fight corruption.
Sri Lanka’s anticorruption units have been cracking down on alleged corruption cases since Dissanayake came to power in September.
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