Brother of former Sri Lankan president arrested in fraud inquiry
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Version 0 of 1. Sri Lankan police have detained the brother of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa on a charge of misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds. The move comes amid an intensifying power struggle on the island nation as the Rajapaksa family moves towards launching a bid to return to power after being ousted in January in a presidential election. Basil Rajapaksa, the former economic development minister, was taken into custody on Wednesday afternoon after being questioned for more than six hours about an alleged 70m rupee (£352,000) fraud involving the construction of public housing, UR De Silva, his lawyer, said. Related: Mahinda Rajapaksa prepares for political comeback in Sri Lanka “We are told that he will be taken before a magistrate this evening. Since he is charged under the Offences Against Public Property Act, bail is not possible. I will be making a … submission but I am not hopeful that he will be released,” De Silva said on Wednesday. The younger Rajapaksa, who has dual Sri Lankan-American citizenship, fled to the US soon after his brother lost the election to his former ally Maithripala Sirisena, who came to power on a pledge to fight corruption. The former president himself is under investigation over a bribery charge and is due to be questioned by anti-graft detectives on Friday. “They have no evidence. They are making wild allegations. This is a witch-hunt. Neither I nor any member of my family has ill-gotten money. Show us the money, where is the evidence?” Mahinda Rajapaksa said earlier this week. The victory of Maithripala Sirisena by six percentage points in a runoff vote on 8 January was welcomed by India and western nations including the US. Analysts had described the election as the most significant in the country for decades and a last chance for democracy. Mahinda Rajapaksa came to power in 2005, led the military to a bloody victory over violent separatists from the Tamil minority four years later and surfed a wave of popularity among the Sinhala majority to win again in 2010. He then had the constitution changed to allow the third term he hoped to win in January’s poll. However, allegations of corruption and nepotism, violent intimidation of political opponents, attacks on journalists, growing resentment among Tamils and mounting sectarian violence led to concern at home and abroad. The 69-year-old veteran politician still retains considerable support among Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese Buddhist majority, especially in rural areas. Basil Rajapaksa left for the US within days of the election defeat in January. He was greeted at Sri Lanka’s international airport on Wednesday by supporters. Speaking on his arrival, he said “the Rajapaksas have never stolen public money”. According to his lawyer, the former minister voluntarily presented himself at the police financial crimes investigation division in Colombo, the cultural and commercial capital, at around 11am. “We were informed around 5.30 that he was arrested. We did not have access to him while he was being questioned. But later we got to know that he had been arrested … on suspicion of misappropriation of funds in a housing project. Police say there are irregularities in payments under the project that were connected with Mr Rajapaksa as minister,” De Silva said. Police are also investigating allegations that funds from a US$70m “livelihood development fund” were misappropriated. |