ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka ex-President Ranil Wickremesinghe was remanded until Tuesday, August 26 by the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court, after being arrested by the police criminal investigation department after he came to give a statement.
Wickremesinghe was arrested over alleged the use of state-funds for a stop-over in London to visit a university where his wife was made an honorary professor, during a foreign visit while he was President.
The stop-over was initially described as a private visit in documents but later the expenses for President Wickremesinghe and his staff including bodyguards were paid from state funds, court was told.
A letter purportedly inviting him to the University of Wolverhamptom was presented to court, but no mention of it had been made in 2023 when he was president, or witnesses who were questioned by police, court was told.
The decision on remand was delayed for around four hours after court took a recess at 530 pm and the decision on bail was delivered around 1000 pm.
Remaining supporters crowded around the court premises shouting slogans and hooting. Riot police moved in to make way for the prison to take away the hand-cuffed ex-President.
The current administration came to power promising an anti-corruption crackdown.
Wickremesinghe became acting president following the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on July 15, 2022 following the worst currency crisis in the history of the island’s central bank from rate cuts and liquidity injections from 2019.
Days later parliament elected him as the 8th Executive President of the country.
Wickremesinghe oversaw a stabilization crisis in which the lost confidence of rupee was restored by crushing domestic credit with steep rate hike, state finances were fixed with steep tax hikes to pay salaries of a bloated public service and defaulted debt was restructured.
He served until Anura Disanayake was elected president on September 21, 2024. (Colombo/Aug22/2025)
