Sri Lanka top court bars ex-PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, brother from leaving the country

New Delhi: Sri Lanka's top court on Wednesday barred former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and finance minister Basil Rajapaksa from leaving the country.

The Supreme Court ordered that the duo will not be allowed to leave the country without permission until 28 July, Reuters quoted a Sri Lankan anti-corruption group as saying.

This comes on the day Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation as president was formally announced.  Mahinda resigned as the PM on 9 May. He was succeeded by Ranil Wickremesinghe who has now become the interim president.

Earlier this week, Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled abroad as protesters stormed his official residence in Colombo. He earlier fled to Maldives from where he took a flight to Singapore. According to several reports, Gotabaya Rajapaksa is now headed for Saudi Arabia.

There is also speculation that he might shift to the UAE, AFP reported.

Also read: Explained: What led to the fall of Sri Lanka’s powerful Rajapaksa clan?

Sri Lankan lawmakers will pick a new president on 20 July.

The Rajapaksa clan dominated Sri Lankan politics for decades until the country spiraled into an economic crisis. Mahinda Rajapaksa was the president during the final years of the civil war which ended with the Sri Lankan Army's victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2oo9.

With inputs from agencies

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