S’pore extends visa for Lanka’s ex-prez: Report
Singapore extended a short-stay visa for Sri Lanka’s deposed president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, local media in the city-state reported on Wednesday.
Rajapaksa fled his country on July 13, after his official residence was stormed by thousands of protesters who had demonstrated for months against the island nation’s painful economic crisis.
He first escaped to the Maldives in a military plane and travelled on to Singapore, where he has been staying on a shortterm visit pass since July 14.
Rajapaksa’s 14-day visit pass has been extended, allowing him to stay until August 11, the Straits Times newspaper reported on Wednesday, without citing a source.
Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
The former president was allowed to enter Singapore on a “private visit” and did not seek asylum, authorities said previously.
Sri Lanka’s cabinet spokesperson Bandula Gunawardena told reporters in Colombo on Tuesday that Rajapaksa is not in hiding and is expected to return to his country, but added that the government has not been informed about his travel plans.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court extended a travel ban on former prime
Gotabaya Rajapaksa
minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, brothers of ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to August 2, news channel Newsfirst said in a tweet on on Wednesday.
PM: Ready to listen to democratic protesters
Addressing parliament on Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s newlyappointed Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena on Wednesday said the government is ready to listen to the demands of democratic public protesters, but denounced acts of terrorism, calling it the “greatest threat to democracy.”
Gunawardena, 73, an ally of the Rajapaksas and a school friend of the newly-elected President Ranil Wickremesinghe, was sworn in as the Sri Lankan Prime Minister last week amid an unprecedented economic and political crisis.