A court in Sri Lanka on Tuesday granted bail to former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had been arrested last week on allegations of misusing state funds during his time in office.
Wickremesinghe, 76, joined the court hearing via Zoom from a state-run hospital. His United National Party (UNP) said he was admitted over the weekend on his doctor’s advice to monitor his health.
Hundreds of supporters, including opposition politicians, gathered outside the court in central Colombo ahead of the hearing. Police cordoned off the complex by placing yellow barricades to keep the crowd in check.
“This is a sign of the independence of our judiciary,” Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, the UNP’s deputy secretary, told reporters outside the courthouse.
“We came out in support of democracy and due process. The government should continue measures to fight against corruption. We have no objection to that.”
The UNP has said Wickremesinghe, who lost power in a 2024 presidential election, is innocent and suggested that the case against him is politically motivated, which Sri Lanka’s ruling party, headed by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, denies.
The case against him is based on an investigation made into a visit he made to Britain in 2023 to attend a special graduation lunch as part of celebrations of his wife’s honorary professorship at a university there.
A lawyer by profession, Wickremesinghe also served as Sri Lanka’s prime minister a record six times, before becoming president in 2022 at the height of the island nation’s debilitating financial crisis.
Case Against Wickremesinghe
In 2023, Ranil Wickremesinghe made a stopover in London while returning from Havana, where he had taken part in the G77 summit. During his stay in the British capital, he, along with his wife, attended a ceremonial event hosted by the University of Wolverhampton.
Wickremesinghe has consistently maintained that the travel expenses of his wife were borne by her personally and that there was no use of public funds for her trip.
The Criminal Investigation Department, however, has alleged that Wickremesinghe misused state money to cover his own travel costs during what was described as a private visit. Furthermore, the CID claims that his security personnel accompanying him were also financed with government funds.
(With inputs from Reuters)
