Sri Lankan authorities on Wednesday arrested Shiranthi Rajapaksa, the wife of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, on suspicion of misusing donations made to her charitable foundation while she was first lady. A court ordered her held in custody until 13 October while investigations continue. Because of an eye problem, the magistrate directed that she be taken to a prison hospital. Reports describe her as having one eye bandaged after recent surgery.
Shiranthi Rajapaksa was detained at her home in Colombo, the capital, and questioned at length by officials from the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption. A commission spokesperson said the arrest was linked to her Siriliya Saviya foundation. According to police, investigators are examining the use of 10 million Sri Lankan rupees, roughly 28,000 euros, that a state bank donated to the foundation in 2011-2012 to buy a scanner for a hospital. Material submitted to the court reportedly suggests the equipment was in fact financed by China, and that the donated money was diverted to other purposes. Her lawyer, Manoj Gamage, said she categorically denies any wrongdoing. She had left for medical treatment in Singapore on 16 September and returned to Colombo on 5 October.
The former head of the state-owned National Savings Bank, Pradeep Kariyawasam, was also arrested for allegedly breaching procedures in releasing the money to the foundation. He was granted bail the same day. Separately, Rohitha Bogollagama, a foreign minister under the Rajapaksa government, was arrested in another corruption case.
The arrests come as President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who took office in 2024 after campaigning on an anti-corruption platform, pursues cases against the Rajapaksa family. The couple's son Namal Rajapaksa, a lawmaker, was remanded in custody last month on suspicion of taking bribes linked to a 2013 SriLankan Airlines purchase of Airbus aircraft. Mahinda Rajapaksa himself has not been formally charged. Members of the family deny the allegations and describe them as a political witch-hunt.
The case matters because of the family's central place in modern Sri Lankan history. Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabaya were celebrated by many in the Sinhala Buddhist majority after the military defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, ending a 26-year civil war. Mahinda lost power in 2015 amid allegations of corruption and curbs on freedoms. The family returned to office in 2019, when Gotabaya was elected president after the Easter Sunday bombings that killed 267 people. In 2022, however, an economic collapse, the worst financial crisis in the country's history, led to mass protests and Gotabaya's resignation and flight from the country. The current prosecutions are being closely watched as a test of the government's promise to hold those in power to account.