Ranil Wickremesinghe granted bail on a $16,600 bond after tense courtroom listening to amid protests and tight safety.
A Sri Lankan courtroom has granted bail to former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was arrested final week over allegations that he misused state funds whereas in workplace.
Wickremesinghe, 76, joined the courtroom listening to on Tuesday by way of Zoom from a state-run hospital the place he was admitted over well being considerations.
The case in opposition to him relies on an investigation right into a go to he made to Britain in 2023 wherein he spent $55,000 of presidency funds to attend a commencement lunch as a part of celebrations of his spouse’s honorary professorship at a college there.
Colombo Fort Justice of the Peace Nilupuli Lankapura ordered Wickremesinghe’s launch on a 5-million-rupee ($16,600) bond after a prolonged listening to held beneath tight safety.
A whole lot of supporters, protesters and opposition politicians gathered exterior the courtroom in central Colombo earlier than the listening to.
One protester, Samarasiri Kuruwitaarachchi, 69, instructed The Related Press information company that the federal government has didn’t ship on the guarantees it made earlier than final yr’s presidential election and is now “making an attempt to seek out the political opponents”.
Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, deputy chief of Wickremesinghe’s United Nationwide Social gathering (UNP), instructed reporters exterior the courtroom that the demonstrations are a “signal of the independence of our judiciary”.
“We got here out in assist of democracy and due course of. The federal government ought to proceed measures to struggle in opposition to corruption. We have now no objection to that,” Kariyawasam mentioned.
The UNP has mentioned Wickremesinghe, who misplaced energy in final yr’s election, is harmless and advised that the case in opposition to him is politically motivated, which Sri Lanka’s ruling get together, headed by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, denies.
A lawyer by occupation, Wickremesinghe additionally served as Sri Lanka’s prime minister a file six occasions earlier than turning into president in 2022.
The previous president maintains that his spouse’s journey bills in Britain had been met by her personally and no state funds had been used for the go to.
Dissanayake has led a marketing campaign to stamp out endemic corruption on the island nation, which continues to be rising from its worst financial disaster in 2022.
