COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s former president Ranil Wickremesinghe was arrested on Friday for allegedly “misusing government funds,” a senior police detective told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Wickremesinghe was taken into custody after being questioned about a Sept. 2023 visit to London to attend a ceremony for his wife at a British university while he was head of state, the officer said.

“We are producing him before the Colombo Fort magistrate,” the officer said, adding that they were pressing charges for using state resources for personal purposes.

Sri Lanka's ex-president Wickremesinghe arrested over fund misuse

Wickremesinghe had stopped in the United Kingdom’s capital in 2023 on his way back from Cuba’s capital Havana, where he attended a Group of 77 summit.

He and his wife Maithree attended a University of Wolverhampton ceremony.

Wickremesinghe had maintained that his wife’s travel expenses were met by her and that no state funds were used.

However, the police force’s Criminal Investigation Department alleged that Wickremesinghe used government money for his travel on a private visit and that his bodyguards were also paid by the state.

Wickremesinghe became president in July 2022 for the remainder of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s term after the latter stepped down following months of protests over alleged corruption and mismanagement.

Wickremesinghe is credited with stabilizing the economy after the South Asian country’s worst-ever financial meltdown in 2022.

He lost his reelection bid in September.

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