Lagatar24 Desk
Colombo, July 12: The younger brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, was denied boarding on an Emirates flight to Dubai on Monday night as protesters encircled the Colombo international airport. This is the latest sign of the ongoing political unrest in Sri Lanka.
Basil, who is a dual citizen of the US and Sri Lanka, was reportedly on his way to Dubai when border officials baulked due to pressure from the protesters who had gathered at the airport. Checkpoints have been set up by the protesters to prevent any political leaders, particularly those from the Rajapaksa clan, from leaving the country. Mahinda and Gotabaya, Basil’s older brothers, are both in Colombo and are both under security guard; Gotabaya will step down as president tomorrow.
Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, the Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament, informed the gathered leaders at an all-party meeting on July 11 that a new president would be chosen in accordance with the Constitution during a vote in Parliament on July 20.
Even though Gotabaya would step down from the presidency, his former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a statement yesterday that the political survivor had not given up on becoming Sri Lanka’s next president. Observers in Colombo claimed that Ranil has the support of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is still actively involved in the power politics of the island nation despite having plunged it into economic ruin.
