Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court issued a symbolic ruling on Tuesday that the powerful Rajapaksa brothers – including two former presidents – were guilty of triggering the island’s worst financial crisis by mishandling the economy.
The lawsuit was filed by corruption watchdog Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) and four other activists against former top officials, including former presidents Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa.
They included her younger brother, former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, two former central bank governors and other senior finance officials.
“We demanded a declaration from the court that the mistreatment or inaction of the former heads of state and senior officials regarding the economy violated people’s fundamental rights,” Transparency International lawyer Nadishani Perera told AFP.
“This is what we received. It is now up to citizens to take further action.”
Advertisement – Scroll to continue
A five-judge panel ruled 4-1 that the group was responsible for economic mismanagement between 2019 and 2022 and ordered it to pay the petitioners just over $450 (Rs150,000) in legal fees.
“Given that the plaintiffs went to court in the interest of the public and did not seek compensation for themselves, the court was not inclined to order compensation beyond the costs incurred by the plaintiffs,” Transparency International said in a statement.
The financial crisis sparked months of public protests with severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine that eventually toppled Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Advertisement – Scroll to continue
Rajapaksa centralized power after taking office in 2019 by stripping independent control of the police, judiciary and electoral authorities.
But his government stumbled when Sri Lanka was unable to import essential goods due to a critical foreign exchange shortage.
Rajapaksa has now returned to Sri Lanka and is living under armed protection, despite growing calls for his arrest and prosecution on a range of corruption charges.
str-pjm/mtp
Comments are closed.