Sri Lanka crisis: Ex-PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, Basil Rajapaksa barred from leaving the country

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka`s top court on Friday barred former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa from leaving the country without permission until July 28, anti-corruption group Transparency International Sri Lanka said.

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court today issued an interim order preventing former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Minister Basil Rajapaksa from leaving the country without the court's permission until July 28th: Sri Lanka's DailyMirror

(File photos) pic.twitter.com/xg290lfmLX — ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2022

Three other former officials, including two former central bank governors, also cannot travel outside the country without the court`s permission till July 28, the group said in a tweet. The ruling comes days after former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled from the country amid the deepening economic and political crisis. 

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has already left the country, first for the Maldives and onwards to Singapore. His departure came after months of protests against the mismanagement of the island nation's economy, leading to severe hardships for its 2.2 crore people.

Meanwhile, the parliament is set to elect a new President on Wednesday, July 20, an official said. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been sworn in as acting president. "Gotabaya has legally resigned" with effect from yesterday, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana told reporters.

Sri Lankan protesters today handed back the Presidential Palace, which they'd seized last Saturday, to the government. A forensic team was immediately called in to collect fingerprints, besides assessing the degree of the damage.