Rajapaksa, who is due to formally step down on Wednesday after months of protests calling for him to step down, was reportedly trying to flee to Dubai on Monday night. But officials said immigration staff refused to let the president into the airport’s VIP area to get his passport stamped and would not go through regular lines for fear of being mobbed by the public. As a result, Rajapaksa reportedly missed four flights to the United Arab Emirates and he and his wife had to return to a nearby military base. While still president, Rajapaksa enjoys immunity from arrest and is believed to want to flee abroad before resigning to avoid the possibility of detention. He is accused of overseeing corruption and financial mismanagement, which bankrupted the country and triggered the worst financial crisis on record. He has also been accused of war crimes, including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, during his tenure as defense minister, when he led the civil war fought against the Tamil minority, to a bloody end in 2009. For more than a decade, the complaints against him have been prevented from reaching the courts. The president was not the only member of the family who tried unsuccessfully to escape. His younger brother Basil Rajapaksa, who served as finance minister and has also been accused of widespread corruption, was unable to board a flight to the US via Dubai on Tuesday morning after other passengers protested. Airport staff refused to let him use the fast track concierge service and prevented him from boarding the flight. According to airport officials, as the situation became tense, Basil Rajapaksa, who has dual US citizenship, backed down. After news of the Rajapaksa family’s escape attempts broke on Tuesday, a high court action was filed to ban Basil Rajapaksa, the elder brother of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was forced to resign as prime minister in May. Ranil Wickremesinghe and several others who served under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s regime were not allowed to leave the country Rajapaksa has resisted public pressure to step down for months, but on Saturday, after hundreds of thousands of protesters filled the streets of Colombo and then occupied the presidential palace and offices, he had no choice but to announce his resignation. below. However, the president has not been seen since the protests and his whereabouts have remained a source of speculation. His resignation, which is expected on Wednesday, was first conveyed through the speaker of the House and then the prime minister’s office, but there has been no public address from the president. An interim all-party unity government is expected to take over after Rajapaksa’s long-awaited resignation, when the cabinet has said everyone will step down. Sajith Premadasa – the leader of the largest opposition party Samagi Jana Balawegaya – who lost the presidential election to Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2019, has said he will run for president. Sri Lanka’s parliament will reconvene on Friday and a new speaker will be elected by MPs on July 20. The caretaker government is expected to rule for six to eight months until the country can afford to hold parliamentary elections.
