Why Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksas are being investigated for corruption and crimes

Key points

• A Sri Lankan court extended custody of Shiranthi Rajapaksa, wife of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, over charity fund misuse allegations.
• Her son Namal Rajapaksa remains in custody on bribery charges, and other family members face separate corruption investigations.
• President Anura Kumara Dissanayake says the law applies equally to everyone, while the SLPP calls the arrests a political witch-hunt.

A court in Colombo, Sri Lanka, has extended the custody of Shiranthi Rajapaksa, 73, wife of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, until Friday. She was arrested on October 7 by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).

The Siriliya Saviya Foundation, a charity she leads, is accused of misusing nearly 100 million rupees ($303,000) in donations meant to buy equipment for a children's hospital in Colombo. Investigators told the court an MRI scanner had already been donated by the Chinese government, but the charity allegedly kept soliciting donations for a scanner and misused the funds.

Wider family investigations

Shiranthi's 40-year-old son Namal Rajapaksa, a parliamentarian and national organiser of the Rajapaksa-controlled Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party, was arrested a month earlier over bribery charges and remains in custody. He is being tried over an alleged $30,000 bribe in a government deal with Airbus to buy planes for the national airline, and faces another investigation into an alleged $211,000 bribe paid by a foreign private company to expedite a government land transfer.

Mahinda's other son Yoshitha, 38, is also being investigated for money laundering. Shasheendra Rajapaksa, 50, son of Chamal Rajapaksa, is out on bail in a corruption case. Basil Rajapaksa faces an arrest warrant for failing to appear in court over property purchases allegedly using illicit money, and is believed to be in the United States. Last week, the Financial Crimes Investigation Division seized Basil's property in Matara.

Those who gained social power, political power and positional power used those powers to be above the law. But, under this government, the law is equal for everyone

— President Anura Kumara Dissanayake

Government and party responses

SLPP general secretary Sagara Kariyawasam denied the allegation against Shiranthi. "It is untrue, and the money is safe in the frozen bank account of Siriliya Saviya," he told Al Jazeera. He accused the government of taking people into custody without court trials and called it a political witch-hunt.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, speaking at a public rally in Nikaweratiya on Sunday, said the law will be applied to everyone equally. Researcher Ramindu Perera said the demand for accountability in corruption cases was the main slogan that brought Dissanayake to power, and political analyst Gamini Viyangoda rejected Kariyawasam's claim, saying it was implementing the rule of law.