Former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe was arrested today on arrival in Colombo to record the statement in connection with the ongoing investigation at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The news agency AFP quoted a senior police detective as saying that former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickramasinghe had been arrested for allegedly misusing government money. The official said Wickramasinghe was detained after questioning about a visit to London to attend a ceremony for his wife at a British University in September 2023. At that time he was the head of the state.
Investigators claim that the visit to London, which was included in a broad foreign tour, included no official programs, but was funded by government funds. Earlier this month, former President Secretary of Wickramasinghe, Saman Eknayake and former Private Secretary Sandra Perera were questioned about his role in the arrangement of the visit. According to documents submitted by the police through the B-Report in the Colombo Fort Magistrate Court, the investigation is allegedly related to the trip to Wickramasinghe to attend his wife’s PhD graduation ceremony at Volwarhampton University. The program is reported to be held on 22 and 23 September 2023.
The CID investigation claimed that a team of ten people had gone with the former President, and the government spent about 16.9 million rupees on the visit. It has also been revealed that Wickremesinghe was at an official visit to Cuba and the United States at the time, and went to Britain from the US, which is being described as a private visit. Wickremesinghe, who was the President of Sri Lanka from 2022 to 2024, is the most senior political person to be arrested in recent years. He was affected by the increasing investigation of corruption and financial misconduct by the members of the political aristocratic class of Sri Lanka, many of which have been accused of long embezzlement and misuse of public resources, whose accountability is very low.
