Breaking: Ranil Wickremesinghe, the former president of Sri Lanka, was detained.
Colombo: According to authorities, Ranil Wickremesinghe, the former president of Sri Lanka, was taken into custody on Friday on suspicion of embezzling public monies.
According to police, Wickremesinghe, 76, was taken into custody at the Criminal Investigation Department’s (CID) headquarters after being called to provide a statement as part of an inquiry into the purported misappropriation of public funds.
He has been charged with exploiting public funds to fly to England in September 2023 to attend his wife Prof. Maithree’s convocation ceremony.
Wickremesinghe allegedly travelled to the UK on state funding to attend his wife’s private engagement while on his way back from an official engagement in the US.
His employees had already been questioned by the CID on the trip costs.
Wickremesinghe was credited with guiding Sri Lanka out of the 2022 economic crisis. He had succeeded Gotabaya Rajapaksa as president and would hold the office for the remainder of his tenure until the end of 2024. From July 2022 to September 2024, he served as president.
The seasoned politician also held six terms as prime minister of Sri Lanka.
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