Ex-president rushed to intensive care from jail

Ranil

Sri Lanka’s jailed former president was rushed to intensive care at a state hospital on Saturday, a day after being charged with misusing government funds for foreign travel.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was remanded in custody on Friday night, was severely dehydrated and required close monitoring, the deputy director-general of Colombo National Hospital told AFP.

“He has to be closely observed and treated for acute dehydration to prevent serious complications,” Rukshan Bellana said.

“He was a severe diabetic with high blood pressure when he was brought in.”

Bellana said, however, that Wickremesinghe’s condition was “stable”.

He was taken to Sri Lanka’s main state-run hospital as his condition deteriorated and the prison medical facility was not equipped to treat him, a prison spokesperson said.

Opposition legislators who visited 76-year-old Wickremesinghe in prison earlier in the day reported that he had been in good spirits.

Opposition parties have accused the government of jailing him over fears he could return to power.

Wickremesinghe lost the last presidential election in September to Anura Kumara Dissanayake, but has remained politically active despite holding no elected position.

He was arrested on Friday as part of Dissanayake’s campaign against endemic corruption in the island nation, which is emerging from its worst economic meltdown in 2022. Punch