Former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Friday over allegations of misusing state funds, according to local television channel Ada Derana.
The report stated that Wickremesinghe, 76, was taken into custody after he arrived at the CID office in the capital city of Colombo. He was there to provide a statement regarding an investigation into his trip to London for his wife’s graduation ceremony.
A spokesperson for the Sri Lankan police did not immediately confirm the arrest. Wickremesinghe’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters. Local media reported that he was scheduled to appear in court later on Friday.
A lawyer who served as Sri Lanka’s prime minister a record six times, Wickremesinghe was appointed president in 2022 during the Indian Ocean island nation’s devastating financial crisis.
Wickremesinghe, the leader of the United National Party (UNP), took office after widespread protests over the economic meltdown forced his predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to flee the country and resign.
He finished third in last year’s presidential election—the first since the economic crisis—behind the winner, Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa.
The election served as a referendum on Wickremesinghe, who led a successful but fragile economic recovery that included austerity measures that angered voters.
Born into a prominent family of politicians and businessmen with significant media interests, Wickremesinghe became the country’s youngest cabinet minister at age 29 in 1978, appointed by his uncle, then-President Junius Jayewardene. In 1994, after the assassination of several of his senior colleagues, Wickremesinghe became the leader of the UNP.
