Former presidents back Sri Lanka's jailed ex-leader

COLOMBO: Three former presidents of Sri Lanka expressed solidarity with jailed ex-leader Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sunday and condemned his incarceration as a 'calculated assault' on democracy. The trio, former political rivals of Wickremesinghe — president between July 2022 and September 2024 — said the charges against him were frivolous. He has been accused of using $55,000 in state funds for a stopover in Britain while returning home after a G77 summit in Havana and the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2023.
Wickremesinghe, 76, was rushed to the intensive care unit of the main state-run hospital in Colombo on Saturday, a day after being remanded in custody. Doctors said he was suffering from severe dehydration on top of acute diabetes and high blood pressure. 'What we are witnessing is a calculated onslaught on the very essence of our democratic values,' former president Chandrika Kumaratunga said in a statement. The 80-year-old Kumaratunga said the consequences of Wickremesinghe's jailing would go beyond the fate of an individual and could affect the rights of all citizens. — AFP