A petition has been filed in Sri Lanka's Supreme Court seeking an interim order restraining former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and other influential officials of the Rajapaksa regime from fleeing the country without the prior approval of the apex court, according to a media report on Tuesday.
The case was filed in the apex court as former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, 71, was turned back at the Colombo airport on Tuesday as he attempted to leave the country through the VIP terminal. Basil is Mahinda's and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's brother. He holds a US passport.
The petition has been filed by Sri Lankan swimmer and coach Julian Bolling, former Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chandra Jayaratne, global civil society organisation Transparency International, and entrepreneur Jehan Canaga Retna. The development comes amid mounting anger against the powerful Rajapaksa family for mishandling the worst economic crisis in the island nation.
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This anger reflected on Saturday when thousands of protesters stormed Gotabaya's residence and occupied it. They also took over the Presidential Secretariat. Later in the evening, protesters also set fire to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's house.
The petitioners also sought an order to take legal action against those responsible for financial irregularities and mismanagement of the Lankan economy, news portal dailymirror.lk reported.
Besides Mahinda Rajapaksa, the petition urged travel restrictions on Basil Rajapaksa, former Central Bank governors Ajith Nivard Cabraal and W D Lakshman, and former finance secretary SR Atygalle. It requested the apex court to fix the hearing for Thursday, since there is a grave urgency involved in the matter. The petitioners claimed that they have been reliably informed that some of the persons named in the plea may leave the country.
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Notably, Gotabaya's location is not known since Friday when he left his residence in anticipation of protesters' activities the next day. Amid reports that he has left the country, the Sri Lankan Parliamentary Speaker on Monday clarified that he has not left the country. The reports of his leaving the country were fuelled by comments by the Speaker in an interview, which he later clarified.
The Speaker's office said, "This was (speculated) after a mistake made by Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena who had said he [Gotabaya] had left the country but would be back by Wednesday to offer his resignation. Abeywardena later corrected the mistake."
In videos on social media shared by news organisations, Gotabaya is seen to be boarding a Sri Lankan Navy ship. PTI on Monday cited sources as saying that Gotabaya is speculated to be spending time at a Sri Lanka Naval facility.
Meanwhile, the employees of SriLankan Airlines withdrew from their duties from noon in a bid to prevent responsible officials involved in the country's present crisis from leaving, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.
Basil, the younger brother of Gotabaya, tried to leave the crisis-hit island nation, a day before Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena is expected to publicly announce Gotabaya's resignation to the nation.
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Gotabaya signed on Monday his resignation letter, dated for July 1, and it was later handed over to a senior government official who will hand it over to the Parliament Speaker, the Daily Mirror reported.
Basil resigned as finance minister in early April as street protests intensified against shortages of fuel, food and other necessities and quit his seat in parliament in June. His brother Mahinda Rajapaksa also resigned as prime minister. His house was also set on fire by protesters in May. He was reported to be staying at a military facility after that.
(With PTI inputs)
