Namal Rajapaksa, ex-Sri Lankan president's son, arrested in Airbus graft case

Namal Rajapaksa, the elder son of Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, was arrested by the island nation’s anti-graft commission over alleged corruption linked to the purchase of Airbus aircraft for SriLankan Airlines.

Rajapaksa, 40, appeared before the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) on Friday. The commission arrested him after more than five hours of questioning and presented him before Magistrate Asanga S Boderagama. The Colombo magistrate remanded him until September 18, officials said.

The questioning centred on information that Rajapaksa had benefited by USD 800,000 from the purchase of wide-bodied Airbus aircraft for SriLankan Airlines under his father’s presidency, when commissions were deposited into various bank accounts.

The arrest marked the first time a Rajapaksa from the former first family had been remanded since the current People’s Power government came to power two years ago.

Rajapaksa’s cousin Shashindra Rajapaksa is currently on bail after being remanded earlier this year.

Rajapaksa, a leader of the opposition Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), had announced plans to organise the first of a major anti-government public rally on September 12 in the north-central town of Anuradhapura.

The SLPP claimed that the government had planned his remand to scuttle the rally and his opposition campaign against the government.

Rajapaksa’s siblings are also facing various charges of wrongdoing, which they all claim are political witch hunts.

Friday’s arrest and remand came after the CIABOC arrested Johnston Fernando, a former Cabinet member of the Rajapaksa governments between 2005 and 2023. Authorities charged Fernando with misusing public funds to install seating at a conference hall named after Mahinda Rajapaksa in the central district of Kandy.

- Ends