Sri Lanka's ex-first lady arrested over alleged misuse of children's hospital donations
The 73-year-old has been arrested over allegations that a charity she is linked to misused donations.
Sri Lanka’s former First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa has been arrested amid allegations that a charity associated with her misused donations intended for a children’s hospital.
Anti-corruption officials detained the 73-year-old wife of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the couple’s Colombo residence on Wednesday.
She is being questioned over 10 million rupees ($30,300; £22,800) in donations collected by the Siriliya Saviya charity, which were supposed to fund a specialised scanner for Colombo’s Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital.
However, officials say that scanner had already been donated by the Chinese government.
Shiranthi Rajapaksa has denied any wrongdoing and says the funds were not misappropriated.
She returned to Sri Lanka on Monday from Singapore, where she had been receiving medical treatment. She had submitted a court petition seeking to block her arrest, but the hearing was scheduled for 12 October.
A spokesperson for former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Manoj Gamage, said the money remains secure in Siriliya’s accounts and that no fraud took place.
Mahinda Rajapaksa was president of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015, and for years his family maintained a firm hold on the country’s politics. He was widely praised as a hero for ending nearly three decades of civil war when Tamil Tiger rebels were defeated in 2009 during his first term.
But in 2022, protests erupted nationwide as inflation soared and Sri Lanka ran short of fuel, food and medicine.
Mahinda’s brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was then serving as leader, was eventually ousted.
Sri Lanka’s current government, led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has since reopened long-stalled corruption probes involving several members of the Rajapaksa family.
Mahinda and Shiranthi’s eldest son, Namal Rajapaksa, was arrested earlier this year over allegations tied to an aircraft procurement deal made during his father’s presidency. He is currently in remand.
His brother Yoshitha was also arrested earlier this year on corruption charges.