COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s deposed former chief executive Gotabaya Rajapaksa returned to the country upon Friday (Sep 2), an airport recognized said, seven days after he fled amid the island’s worst-ever recession.
Rajapaksa was festooned along with flowers by an inviting party of ministers and politicians as he disembarked at the primary international airport, the official additional – in an indication of his long-lasting influence in the Indian Ocean nation experts say he led to ruin.
“There was a rush associated with government politicians to garland him as he came out of the plane, ” the official told AFP.
Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka below military escort in mid-July after disarmed crowds stormed his standard residence , subsequent months of furious demonstrations blaming your pet for the nation’s unparalleled economic crisis.
He submitted his resignation through Singapore before flying on to Asia , from in which he had petitioned his successor Ranil Wickremesinghe to facilitate his return.
The particular 73-year-old leader arrived from Bangkok via Singapore on a commercial flight, ending his 52-day self-imposed exile.
“He continues to be living in a Thai hotel as a digital prisoner and had been keen to return, inch a defence established, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
“We have just a new security department to protect him after his return, inch the official added.
“The unit comprises elements from the army and police commandos. ”
Opposition politicians have offender Wickremesinghe of shielding the once-powerful Rajapaksa family.
Sri Lanka’s constitution guarantees bodyguards, a vehicle plus housing for former presidents, including Gotabaya and his elder brother and fellow ex-president Mahinda.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation finished his presidential immunity, and rights activists said that they would press for his arrest on multiple fees, including his claimed role in the yr assassination of prominent newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunge.
“We welcome his decision to return so that we are able to bring him in order to justice for the crimes he has committed, inch said Tharindu Jayawardhana, a spokesman for your Sri Lanka Young Journalists’ Association.
Rajapaksa also faces costs in a court within the American state associated with California over Wickrematunge’s murder and the torture of Tamil criminals at the end of the island’s traumatic civil battle in 2009.