The brother’s saga according to Mahinda

By Norman Palihawadana

Former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had left the country for a medical checkup and had not fled.Rajapaksa said he couldn’t give a definite date about his younger brother’s return to the country but said the latter would certainly return to Sri Lanka in the near future.

When it was pointed out that the former President had fled the country after leaving for the safety of the Naval base, in Trincomalee, after the President’s House came under siege on July 9, when thousands of protesters stormed the place, Rajapaksa said those claims were baseless.

Rajapaksa first landed in the Maldives, after leaving the country in an SLAF aircraft, on July 13, and stayed in a luxury hotel in Male before flying to Singapore in a Saudi Arabian aircraft. Since then he has been staying in Singapore. Speculation is rife that he is planning to return to Sri Lanka. President Ranil Wickremesinghe has gone on record as saying that the time is not opportune for the former President’s return.