Rajapaksa resigned as president in July after protesters angered by a debilitating financial disaster stormed his workplace and residence.
Sri Lanka’s deposed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has returned house weeks after fleeing the crisis-hit nation, officers stated.
The 73-year-old former chief landed within the capital, Colombo, on a Singapore Airways flight from Thailand within the early hours of Saturday, native media stories stated.
Rajapaksa resigned in July after tens of 1000’s of protesters angered by a debilitating financial disaster stormed his workplace and residence.
He fled to the Maldives on July 9, went to Singapore from there and spent the previous few weeks in Thailand on a diplomatic visa.
Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez, reporting from Colombo, confirmed Rajapaksa’s return.
“We do have affirmation that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has returned to the nation,” she stated.
“The expectation is that he’ll a minimum of … return to his non-public residence and maintain issues quiet. The individuals on the airport who confirmed his arrival stated he appeared relaxed and comfortable to be again.”
Financial disaster
Rajapaksa was elected president in 2019 by an amazing majority on a promise to uplift the nation’s economic system and strengthen nationwide safety after ISIL (ISIS)-inspired bomb assaults on church buildings and accommodations killed 270 individuals on Easter Sunday that yr.
Nevertheless, coverage blunders together with drastic tax cuts which diminished nationwide revenue and pushed down credit score rankings, a ban on agrochemicals ostensibly to advertise natural farming, and the discharge of scarce international foreign money to artificially management change charges led to the worst financial disaster within the nation’s historical past.
Sri Lanka has suspended compensation of its international money owed, which complete greater than $51bn, of which $28bn should be repaid by 2027.
The Worldwide Financial Fund introduced on Thursday a preliminary settlement to increase $2.9bn to Sri Lanka over 4 years, offered there are assurances from the nation’s collectors on mortgage restructuring.
Months of road protests have dismantled the once-powerful Rajapaksa political household.
Earlier than Rajapaksa resigned, his older brother Mahinda Rajapaksa stepped down as prime minister and three extra shut relations give up their cupboard positions.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who succeeded Rajapaksa, has cracked down on protests, serving to the Rajapaksa household and its supporters who had been in hiding to return to public politics.
Nuzly Hameem, one of many leaders of the protest motion, stated the previous president’s return shouldn’t be a difficulty “so long as he’s held accountable”.
“He’s a Sri Lankan citizen so nobody can stop him from coming again. However as somebody who desires justice for the corrupt system, I wish to see motion taken – there needs to be justice, they need to file instances in opposition to him and maintain him accountable for what he did to the nation.”
“We didn’t count on him to flee. We needed him to resign. So long as he doesn’t contain himself in energetic politics, it gained’t be an issue,” Hameem stated.