Ex-Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to Return on Aug 24: Report

Former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa will return to the island nation next week, a local media broadcaster Newsfirst reported on Wednesday (August 17) citing Udayanga Weeratunga, a former Lankan envoy to Russia. There's no official confirmation yet. 

As quoted by the local media, Weeratunga, who is related to Rajapaksa, said that the former president will arrive in Sri Lanka on August 24.

Amid nationwide protests over the country's worst economic crisis, Gotabaya Rajapaksa flew out of the country last month in a military plane. He landed in the neighbouring Maldives and then spent weeks in Singapore before flying to Thailand.

After fleeing the country, Rajapaksa has not made any public appearances or comments. 

Sri Lanka has suffered through months of food and fuel shortages, lengthy blackouts and galloping inflation as the nation ran out of foreign currency to import vital goods. 

In a dramatic turn of events on July 9, hundreds of thousands of people in Colombo stormed the presidential palace, demanding Rajapaksa take responsibility for shortages of medicines, food and fuel. 

Udayanga Weeratunga and the MiG deal probe

As far as the probe of the MiG deal is concerned, Weeratunga arrived at the CID to provide a statement about the procurement of MiG-27 fighter jets to the Sri Lanka Air Force. 

Weerathunga was arrested in February 2022 and released on bail several months later. He is accused of unlawfully interfering with the purchase of seven MiG ground attack aircraft for the Air Force from Ukraine. 

He is also accused of embezzling millions of US dollars through the deal._Agencies