- WickREMESINGHE arrested an alleged abusive use of public funds.
- Arrest linked to London Trip for the delivery of women’s diplomas.
- WickREMESINGHE was a PM record six times, made president in 2022.
Colombo: Former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe was arrested on Friday by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) as part of allegations of misuse of public funds, local television channel Ada Derana reported.
WickREMESINGHE, 76, was arrested after arriving at the CID office in the Colombo capital to register a statement in an investigation into his visit to London to attend the graduation ceremony of his wife, according to the report.
A Sri Lankan police spokesperson did not immediately confirm the arrest. The WickREMESINGHE Office did not respond to a request for a comment from Reuters.
He was to appear in court later, reported the local media.
A lawyer who was the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka six times, Wickremesinghe was appointed president in 2022 during the debilitating financial crisis of the Indian Ocean Nation.
WickREMESINGHE, who is the leader of the UNI National Party (UNP), took over after the generalized demonstrations caused by an economic collapse forced his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign later.
He finished third in the presidential elections last year – the first since the economic crisis – behind Anura Kumara Dissanayake Marxiste, who won the vote, and the opposition chief Sajith Premadasa.
The election was a referendum on WickREMESINGHE, which led a successful but fragile economic recovery which included austerity measures that made the voters angry.
Born in an eminent family of politicians and businessmen with great media interests, in 1978, WickREMESINGHE was, at 29, made the youngest minister of the country by his uncle, the Junius President Jayewardene.
In 1994, following assassinations that destroyed several of his superior colleagues, Wickremesinghe became head of UNP.
