Sri Lankan court extends Namal Rajapaksa's remand until Oct 16

COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan court on Tuesday extended until October 16 the remand of lawmaker Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, and former Executive Director of Krrish Group Janaki Siriwardena.

Namal, who is already in remand custody, was produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court, which issued the order.

The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption has filed the case against Namal and Siriwardena on a bribery accusation of 70 million Sri Lankan rupees in connection with a stalled hotel project.

Namal, 40, has been accused of accepting a bribe of 70 million Sri Lankan rupees in 2013 from the hotel project, which never really got off the ground.

Prosecutors alleged that Namal, as a powerful politician then under his father’s presidency, had thrown political weight to speed up necessary approvals.

Namal, an international rugby player, had claimed the money was sponsorship for an international rugby event held in Colombo in 2014.

He has been in remand since September 4 in connection with a USD 2 million bribe in the purchase of Airbus aircraft for SriLankan Airlines in 2013. A second remand order was issued a week after the September 4 order in a separate money laundering case linked to the same Airbus deal.

Last week, he was allowed bail in one of the cases.

Namal's party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), has accused the government of politically victimising him through the cases and his continued remand.

The National People’s Power (NPP) government, however, maintains that action against opposition politicians is in line with its 2024 election pledge to clean public life and eradicate corruption.