Sri Lanka extends detention of former president’s wife amid widening Rajapaksa corruption probe

A Colombo court has extended the detention of Shiranthi Rajapaksa, the 73-year-old wife of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, after she was arrested for allegedly diverting roughly 100 million rupees intended for equipment at a children’s hospital. Investigators say her charity, Siriliya Saviya, used the money to buy a house despite a Chinese-donated MRI scanner already being in place. Her request for anticipatory bail on health grounds was rejected, and the court kept her in custody until Friday.

The move follows the earlier arrest of her son Namal Rajapaksa, a parliamentarian and national organiser of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, who faces bribery charges linked to an Airbus aircraft deal and a separate land-transfer scandal. Additional probes involve other family members—Yoshitha, Shasheendra and Basil Rajapaksa—for money-laundering, property seizures and failure to appear in court. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has framed the actions as enforcement of his anti-corruption mandate, while SLPP officials label them a political witch-hunt.