Sri Lanka: Mahinda Rajapaksa hospitalised, no anticipatory bail to wife

Sri Lanka's former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was admitted to a hospital on Monday for urgent medical care and is being kept under observation in the intensive care unit, his party said. The 80-year-old leader was admitted to hospital in the morning, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) said. He is in the ICU, where doctors are keeping him under observation, it said. Rajapaksa had undergone several medical tests over the past few days, according to the sources.
Meanwhile, an anticipatory bail application filed by former first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa seeking an order to prevent her arrest was on Monday rejected by a Sri Lankan court. The order was issued by the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court after the Magistrate considered the application submitted by 73-year-old Rajapaksa, the wife of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. She had filed the anticipatory bail application seeking protection against arrest by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) in connection with an investigation into the Siriliya Saviya account, Newsfirst Lanka reported.
Rajapaksa's hospitalisation comes amid legal proceedings involving his family, with his wife Shiranthi and elder son Namal facing separate investigations over alleged financial irregularities. Mahinda Rajapaksa served as Sri Lanka's president from 2005 to 2015 and later as prime minister. He remains a prominent figure in the country's politics and was president when government forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, ending the island nation's nearly three-decade civil war.
The Rajapaksa family's political fortunes suffered a major setback during Sri Lanka's economic crisis in 2022, when mass protests over shortages, soaring prices and economic mismanagement forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Mahinda's younger brother, to leave office.