Former leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, 76, who lost the last presidential election in September to Anura Kumara Dissanayake, was remanded in custody Friday on charges of misusing state funds for foreign travel.
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 administration.
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.
Wickremesinghe stands accused of using state funds to finance a private visit to Britain in September 2023, while returning from attending the G77 summit in Havana and the UN General Assembly in New York.
His two-day UK visit was to participate in the conferring of an honorary professorship on his wife, Maithree, by the University of Wolverhampton.
However, the police Criminal Investigation Department alleged that Wickremesinghe used 16.6 million rupees ($55,000) of government money for his travel.
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.
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- AFP
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