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 government funds for foreign travel.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was remanded in custody on Fri­­day night, was severely dehydra­ted and required close monitoring, the deputy director-general of Col­ombo National Hospital said.

“He has to be closely observed and treated for acute dehydration to prevent serious complications,” the official added. “He was a sev­ere diabetic with high blood pressure when he was brought in.”

The official said, however, that Wickremesinghe’s condition was stable. He was taken to Sri Lanka’s main state-run hospital as his condition deteriorated and the prison medical facility was not equipped to treat him.

Opposition parties say ex-leader arrested to stop comeback

Opposition legislators who visited 76-year-old Wickremesinghe in prison earlier in the day repor­ted that he had been in good spirits. Opposition parties have accu­sed the government of jailing him over fears he could return to power.

Anti-corruption drive

Wickremesinghe lost the last presidential election in Septem­ber last year to Anura Kumara Dissanayake, but has remained politically active despite holding no elected position.

He was arrested on Friday as part of Dissanayake’s campaign against endemic corruption in the island nation, which is emerging from its worst economic meltdown in 2022.

Nalin Bandara, a member of parliament for the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party, who visited Wickre­mesinghe at Colombo’s New Mag­a­zine Prison, said the former lea­der had called for unity to challenge Dissanayake’s leftist government.

“What the former president says is that we should get onto a common stage to fight the oppression of the new government,” Bandara told reporters outside the prison.

Wickremesinghe’s own United National Party (UNP), which has two seats in the 225-member parliament, said the government felt threatened by the former president.

“They fear he might return to power, and that is why this action,” UNP General Secretary Thalatha Athukorala told reporters in Colombo.

Wickremesinghe stands accu­sed of using state funds to finance a private visit to Britain in Sept 2023, while returning home after the G77 summit in Havana and the UN General Assembly in New York.

The offences carry a maximum punishment of 20 years in jail and a fine not exceeding three times the value of the misappropriated funds estimated at 16.6 million rupees ($55,000).

His two-day visit to Britain was to participate in the conferring of an honorary professorship on his wife, Maithree, by the University of Wolverhampton.

Wickremesinghe has maintained that his wife’s travel expenses were met by her and that no state funds were used.

However, the Criminal Inves­tigation Department alleged that Wickremesinghe used money from the exchequer for his travel.

Wickremesinghe became president in July 2022 after then-leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa stepped down following months of street protests fuelled by the economic crisis. He later secured a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in early 2023, doubled taxes and removed energy subsidies to stabilise the economy.

Since the new government came to power, two former ministers have been jailed for up to 25 years for corruption.

Several members of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s family have also been charged with misusing state funds and are being prosecuted. Many of them are currently on bail pending court hearings.

Dissanayake’s government this month impeached the police chief after accusing him of abuse of power. The prisons chief was also jailed for corruption.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2025