Sri Lankan investigators arrested Namal Rajapaksa on September 4 over allegations that he obtained 100 million Sri Lankan rupees (about $800,000 per 2014-15 trade charges) in bribes linked to an plane procurement deal involving SriLankan Airways in 2012-13.
The arrest exhibits that investigators have moved past airline officers and enterprise intermediaries to a member of Sri Lanka’s strongest political household.
The response to the arrest was fascinating. The United Nationwide Celebration (UNP), which led the 2015-19 Yahapalanaya (good governance) authorities underneath which a number of investigations in opposition to Rajapaksa started, joined the Rajapaksa family-led Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) in condemning his arrest. Their response additionally demonstrates why a political get together from outdoors the UNP-SLPP institution wanted to be in energy to pursue investigations in opposition to highly effective politicians.
Many of the political opposition and their allies within the media and non secular institutions have come out in assist of the Rajapaksas, and massive sources are being spent to discredit the arrest of Namal. Thus, the query shouldn’t be merely whether or not Namal will likely be convicted, however whether or not the Nationwide Folks’s Energy (NPP) anti-corruption marketing campaign can survive contact with the identical political pressures that neutered each earlier try to carry Sri Lanka’s elites to account.
A Cash Path Left Unfinished
In 2020, Airbus agreed to pay almost $4 billion to settle worldwide bribery investigations. As a part of the investigations, international officers traced suspicious funds linked to SriLankan Airways’ plane purchases, and a British courtroom made particulars of the transactions public. In response, the Gotabaya Rajapaksa authorities arrested former SriLankan Airways CEO Kapila Chandrasena and his spouse. However the investigation went no additional; the 2 have been launched on bail, and no motion was taken to find out whether or not Chandrasena and others labored with politicians.
Even in 2020, authorities knew that a part of the cash had been despatched to an organization linked to businessman Nimal Perera, who was carefully related to the Rajapaksas. But neither the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration (2019-2022) nor the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration (2022-2024) investigated what Perera did with the cash. That investigation was solely initiated after the NPP got here into energy.
The Fee to Examine Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) instructed the courtroom that 1.454 million euros (or $1.69 million as per the September 2026 trade charge) in bribe cash was deposited right into a Normal Chartered Checking account in Singapore maintained by Biz Options Inc., an organization registered in Brunei and managed by Chandrasena’s spouse. Of that quantity, $800,000 was allegedly transferred to an Oversea-Chinese language Banking Company Restricted (OCBC) account in Singapore maintained by Sabre Imaginative and prescient Holdings Ltd., an organization belonging to Perera. Investigators allege that Perera transformed the cash into Sri Lankan rupees and handed it to Namal Rajapaksa in a number of installments throughout 2014 and 2015.
After investigations started underneath the NPP, investigators traveled to Australia, the place Perera now lives, and obtained a sworn affidavit from him. He reportedly refused to return to Sri Lanka due to alleged threats to his life however instructed investigators that he had handed the rupee equal of the $800,000 to Namal Rajapaksa.
Deputy Solicitor Normal Janaka Bandara additionally instructed the courtroom that CIABOC and the Prison Investigation Division had performed a joint investigation with help from Australia, Singapore, France, and america. Airbus officers had additionally visited the fee a number of instances. An Airbus delegation was in Colombo as just lately as August to help investigators.
These collaborations give the case a stronger basis. The international banking data and worldwide cooperation can not simply be dismissed as innovations of the NPP. However a very powerful a part of the allegation, i.e., that the cash in the end reached Namal, relies upon closely on Perera’s testimony.
President’s Counsel Sampath Mendis, showing for Namal, argued that neither Airbus officers nor French investigators had accused his shopper of receiving cash. He additionally questioned Perera’s credibility.
The UNP’s Handy Conversion
The SLPP had deliberate a rally underneath Rajapaksa’s management in Anuradhapura on September 12, and the get together alleged that the arrest was designed to disrupt its mobilization and weaken its nationwide organizer.
The UNP, which as soon as claimed to be arch-enemies of the Rajapaksas, got here to Namal’s help. It condemned the arrest as an try to sabotage the SLPP rally and insisted that Namal had the identical democratic proper as President Anura Dissanayake to journey across the nation and maintain public conferences. Wickremesinghe mentioned that with Namal’s arrest, the federal government was weakening the opposition and threatening Sri Lanka’s democratic system.
The UNP’s response is ironic as investigations into Namal and different members of his household started in the course of the UNP-led Yahapalanaya authorities. Ever because the Rajapaksas got here into energy in 2005, the UNP (the principle opposition get together on the time) insisted that they have been a rogue and corrupt political dynasty that’s undermining democracy, the rule of regulation, and the independence of establishments.
When the UNP-led Yahapalanaya administration got here to energy in 2015, quite a lot of probes have been launched in opposition to the Rajapaksas. Monetary crime investigators arrested Namal twice in 2016 in reference to separate money-laundering allegations. However as with many instances filed in the course of the Yahapalanaya authorities, these yielded little outcome and strengthened Rajapaksas’ claims that these lawsuits have been examples of political victimization that will not survive judicial scrutiny. The failure of those investigations performed a big position within the return of the Rajapaksas to energy in 2019.
Relations between the UNP and the SLPP modified after Sri Lanka’s financial collapse drove Gotabaya Rajapaksa from workplace in 2022. Wickremesinghe grew to become president via a parliamentary vote and ruled with the assist of the SLPP majority. Former adversaries grew to become companions in preserving an influence construction that had benefitted each side for many years. The alliance between the 2 events validated what the Sri Lankan left had been saying for years — the established political events are now not distinguishable from one another and have a vested curiosity in preserving the established order. This was another excuse for the NPP victory in 2024.
Now in opposition, Wickremesinghe is opposing Namal’s arrest over the Airbus deal. His response is one other instance of how Sri Lanka’s established political elites shut ranks when accountability threatens their energy and privilege.
President Dissanayake just lately mentioned that Sri Lanka’s former governments had performed “cops and robbers” for many years. One group pretended to pursue the opposite till they exchanged roles. “They have been simply enjoying a recreation,” he mentioned, “however now the actual police have arrived.”
Namal Rajapaksa’s arrest is necessary as a result of the Airbus investigation has now crossed from investigating company intermediaries to the political energy behind the intermediaries. It additionally exposes the connection between two political camps that after pretended to be mortal enemies however now acknowledge a standard risk within the NPP’s accountability marketing campaign.
Sri Lanka’s earlier accountability efforts failed as a result of there was no political will on both aspect to punish highly effective politicians. The Yahapalanaya authorities’s instances in opposition to the Rajapaksas have been deserted not as a result of they might not be confirmed however as a result of the UNP and the SLPP needed to protect a system the place former leaders weren’t jailed for corruption. The distinction now’s that the NPP has no stake in preserving the outdated system.