New Delhi: Sri Lanka’s former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa will return to the island nation next week after fleeing in July amid mass protests, local broadcaster Newsfirst reported on Wednesday, citing his cousin and former ambassador.
Udayanga Weeratunga, a former Sri Lankan envoy to Russia who is related to Rajapaksa, said he will arrive in Sri Lanka on August 24, Newsfirst reported.
“He talked to me on the phone, I can tell you he will return to the country next week,” said Weeratunga, who was Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Russia from 2006 to 2015.
Weeratunga said the ousted president should not be re-elected for political positions, “but he can still do some service to the country as he had done previously.”
Rajapaksa, the first Sri Lankan president to quit mid–term, is temporarily sheltering in Thailand, after fleeing Sri Lanka on a military plane to the Maldives and then spending weeks in Singapore.
He resigned from office soon after arriving in Singapore, facing public anger over his government’s handling of Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.
Not using state funds
Meanwhile, the new Sri Lankan leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has come forward to clarify that the current government is not paying for Rajapaksa’s overseas stay.
The government information department said in a statement that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is not using state funds for any expenses he makes abroad, Sri Lanka’s Newswire reported.
“All such expenses borne by the personal funds of the former President,” the department said