Ranil Wickremesinghe shifted to Colombo National Hospital

Sri Lanka’s former President Ranil Wickremesinghe 

COLOMBO

Sri Lanka’s former President Ranil Wickremesinghe was sent to the National Hospital from Colombo’s Magazine Prison on Saturday, a day after he was arrested on charges of misusing public funds. 

Wickremesinghe, 76, was remanded in custody after the Colombo Magistrate Court refused to grant him bail in a case of alleged misuse of State funds (LKR 16.6 million or roughly $55,000) for a private visit to the United Kingdom in September 2023, when he was in office. He was sent to the prison hospital soon after, reportedly, owing to high blood pressure and his diabetes that needed medical attention. “He has been transferred to the National Hospital [Colombo’s main government hospital] this [Saturday] afternoon, following advice from the prisons medical board,” Prisons Department spokesperson Jagath Weerasinghe told The Hindu.

On Saturday, members of the political opposition, including former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa, visited Wickremesinghe. Speaking to reporters, Rajapaksa said: “He (Wickremesinghe) was in good spirits…he understands this is part of politics.” 

Nalin Bandara, a parliamentarian from the main opposition party Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB or or United People’s Power), who also visited Wickremesinghe told local media that the former President called for opposition parties to get onto a “common stage” to fight the government, news agency AFP reported. 

Wickremesinghe’s arrest is the latest and the most high-profile case in the government’s ongoing crackdown on corruption so far. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake rose to the country’s top office in September 2024, winning chiefly on an anti-corruption plank. His National People’s Power (NPP) coalition enjoys a two-thirds majority in Parliament, after it secured a huge mandate in the general election in November last year.

The United National Party (UNP), which Wickremesinghe leads, has said that the government felt “threatened” by the seasoned politician, who has served as Prime Minister six times and as President from July 2022 to September 2024, after citizens ousted former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. “They fear he might return to power, and that is why this action,” UNP General Secretary Thalatha Athukorala told reporters in Colombo. The UNP currently has one seat in the 225-member Parliament, in addition to two allies. Mr. Premadasa’s SJB, created after a split within the UNP, has 40 MPs.

The Colombo Magistrate Court is due to hear Wickremesinghe’s case on August 26, 2025.

Published on August 23, 2025