Sri Lanka’s former president Ranil Wickremesinghe (L) is escorted to his seat in a jail bus in Colombo on August 22, 2025, after a Justice of the Peace ordered him to be held in remand custody until August 26, 2025, following allegations that he misused state funds to journey to Britain in 2023. Agence France-Presse
COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s jailed former president was rushed to intensive care at a state hospital on Saturday, a day after being charged with misusing authorities funds for international journey.
Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was remanded in custody on Friday night time, was severely dehydrated and required shut monitoring, the deputy director-general of Colombo Nationwide Hospital advised AFP.
“He needs to be intently noticed and handled for acute dehydration to stop critical problems,” Rukshan Bellana stated.
“He was a extreme diabetic with hypertension when he was introduced in.”
READ: Wickremesinghe wins parliamentary vote to be Sri Lanka’s new president
Bellana stated, nonetheless, that Wickremesinghe’s situation was “steady”.
He was taken to Sri Lanka’s foremost state-run hospital as his situation deteriorated and the jail medical facility was not outfitted to deal with him, a jail spokesperson stated.
Opposition legislators who visited 76-year-old Wickremesinghe in jail earlier within the day reported that he had been in good spirits.
Opposition events have accused the federal government of jailing him over fears he might return to energy.
Anti-corruption drive
Wickremesinghe misplaced the final presidential election in September to Anura Kumara Dissanayake, however has remained politically energetic regardless of holding no elected place.
READ: Sri Lanka’s political disaster: What occurs subsequent?
He was arrested on Friday as a part of Dissanayake’s marketing campaign in opposition to endemic corruption within the island nation, which is rising from its worst financial meltdown in 2022.
Nalin Bandara, a member of parliament for the primary opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) celebration, who visited Wickremesinghe at Colombo’s New Journal Jail, stated the previous chief had known as for unity to problem Dissanayake’s leftist authorities.
“What the previous president says is that we should always get onto a standard stage to battle the oppression of the brand new authorities,” Bandara advised reporters outdoors the jail.
Wickremesinghe’s personal United Nationwide Occasion (UNP), which has two seats within the 225-member parliament, stated the federal government felt threatened by the previous president.
“They concern he would possibly return to energy, and that’s the reason this motion,” UNP Common Secretary Thalatha Athukorala advised reporters in Colombo.
Wickremesinghe stands accused of utilizing state funds to finance a personal go to to Britain in September 2023, whereas getting back from attending the G77 summit in Havana and the UN Common Meeting in New York.
The offenses carry a most punishment of 20 years in jail and a superb not exceeding thrice the worth of the misappropriated funds estimated at 16.6 million rupees ($55,000).
His two-day UK go to was to take part within the conferring of an honorary professorship on his spouse, Maithree, by the College of Wolverhampton.
Wickremesinghe has maintained that his spouse’s journey bills have been met by her and that no state funds have been used.
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Wickremesinghe turned president in July 2022 after then-leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa stepped down following months of road protests fuelled by the financial disaster. /dl
