A court in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, has extended the custody of Shiranthi Rajapaksa, the wife of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. She was arrested last week over allegations that her charity misused donations collected for a children’s hospital.
Shiranthi, 73, was arrested on October 7. The arrest is a major blow to a family that ruled Sri Lanka for nearly two decades before it was overthrown in a youth-led uprising in 2022. A month earlier, her son Namal Rajapaksa, a 40-year-old parliamentarian and the national organiser of the Rajapaksa-controlled Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party, was arrested on bribery charges. He remains in custody.
How the Rajapaksa family rose to power
The family is based in Hambantota district in southern Sri Lanka, a stronghold where Mahinda, 80, is regarded as its charismatic patriarch. He was elected prime minister in 2004 and president the following year. Many in the country’s Sinhala Buddhist majority admire him for defeating Tamil separatist rebels in a 26-year civil war that ended in 2009.
His younger brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, served as defence secretary during that campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). According to United Nations estimates, nearly 40,000 civilians were killed in the final weeks of the war, which prompted an international inquiry into alleged atrocities. Mahinda was later criticised for not doing enough to repair relations with the Tamils, who have been banned from commemorating their war dead.
During Mahinda’s rule, the country of 22 million people borrowed nearly $7bn from China for infrastructure projects. Many of those projects were mired in corruption, according to the report. Mahinda later lost the 2015 election to former political ally Maithripala Sirisena, despite having changed a law that had allowed him a third presidential term.
After the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, which were blamed on an offshoot of ISIL (ISIS), Gotabaya used anti-Muslim rhetoric to win the presidency. He was then a political novice, and he became the second member of the family to hold the post. He appointed Mahinda as prime minister and gave senior ministerial posts to his other brothers, Chamal and Basil, as well as to Mahinda’s son Namal.
Corruption cases against family members
The family was also accused of mismanaging the economy and of widespread corruption while it tightened its grip on the island. An economic crisis triggered historic street protests in the summer of 2022, which forced Gotabaya to flee the country. A caretaker government then governed until the 2024 elections, when Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a 57-year-old Marxist, won the presidency on an anti-corruption platform. He promised to act against the Rajapaksas and previous administrations.
The government’s Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) arrested Shiranthi. The Siriliya Saviya foundation, a charity she leads, is accused of misusing donations of nearly 100m rupees ($30,000) that were meant to buy equipment for a children’s hospital in Colombo. Investigators told the court that a Chinese government donation had already supplied an MRI scanner, yet the charity allegedly kept soliciting money for another scanner and misused the funds.
Sagara Kariyawasam, general secretary of the SLPP, denies the allegation. He told that the money was safe in a frozen bank account. CIABOC, however, told the court that its investigation showed the money had been used to buy a house, and that it would begin steps to freeze that asset.
On Monday, Shiranthi’s lawyers asked for anticipatory bail on health grounds, but the court rejected the plea. She was presented before the court on Tuesday, and the court extended her custody until Friday.
Namal is also on trial over an alleged $30,000 bribe linked to a government deal with Airbus to buy planes for the national airline. He faces a separate investigation in which he is allegedly linked to a $211,000 bribe paid by a foreign private company to speed up a government land transfer. Both incidents allegedly took place during his father’s presidency.
Legal action widens to other relatives
Mahinda’s other son, Yoshitha, 38, is being investigated for money laundering. Shasheendra Rajapaksa, the 50-year-old son of Chamal Rajapaksa, is out on bail in a corruption case. Basil Rajapaksa faces an arrest warrant for failing to appear in court in a case concerning the purchase of properties allegedly made with illicit money. He is believed to be in the United States. Last week, the Financial Crimes Investigation Division seized his property in Matara, a southern coastal town.
The legal pressure extends beyond corruption. Gotabaya is barred from travelling abroad over allegations that the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings were staged to boost his popularity before that year’s presidential election. Last week, a Sri Lankan court rejected his appeal to block a likely arrest in the ongoing investigation into the coordinated bombings at three churches and three hotels. The attacks killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners.
In 2023, a whistleblower told the British broadcaster Channel 4 that former intelligence chief Suresh Salley had met the alleged bombers as part of a conspiracy to influence the upcoming election. Gotabaya declared his candidacy two days after the attacks, and his campaign focused on combating “Islamic extremism”. Salley was arrested in February under terror laws and is being investigated over the bombings.
Ramindu Perera, a researcher in international law at the European University Institute in Italy, said that if the allegation linking the Rajapaksas to the 2019 attacks is proven, it would have a “devastating effect” on the family. He added that such revelations were likely to further delegitimise the SLPP. The party now holds just three seats in the 225-member national parliament.
Government and opposition dispute the crackdown
Last month, Sri Lanka’s High Court convicted 15 of 24 Muslim men accused of involvement in the 2019 bombings. Families of many victims, however, said they were still waiting for the “masterminds” to be held accountable.
Speaking at a public rally in Nikawerariya in northwestern Sri Lanka on Sunday, President Dissanayake said the law would apply to everyone equally. “Those who gained social power, political power and positional power, used those powers to be above the law. But, under this government, the law is equal for everyone,” he said. He added that no one was beyond the law’s reach.
Kariyawasam accused the government of misleading the public. He said the SLPP had no problem with thieves being punished after their wrongdoing was proven. However, he argued that the government was taking people into custody without court trials and then claiming it was punishing thieves. He called it “purely a political witch-hunt”.
Perera said the demand for accountability in corruption cases was the central promise that brought Dissanayake to power. He argued that action against corruption was at the core of the National People’s Power (NPP) government’s mandate, and that the current cases should be seen as an attempt to enforce it. Political analyst Gamini Viyangoda also rejected Kariyawasam’s claim, saying: “This is not a political witch-hunt, but implementing the rule of law.”
