‘Ex-leader Rajapaksa arrives in Thailand’

Sri Lanka’s former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has arrived in Thailand on Thursday for a temporary stay, according to The Straits Times, hours after Singapore’s immigration authority said he had left the island state.

Rajapaksa is believed to have arrived in Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport around 8pm local time, via charter plane from Singapore’s Seletar Airport, the report said.

Rajapaksa is expected to stay temporarily in Thailand, a second Southeast Asian country since he fled Sri Lanka for Singapore on July 14 and resigned from office shortly afterwards, following unprecedented unrest over his government’s handling of the worst economic crisis in seven decades, and days after thousands of protesters stormed the president’s official residence and office.

“His Singapore visa runs out on Thursday,” a close associate of Rajapaksa told AFP in

Colombo on Wednesday. “He had applied for an extension, but it had not come through as of Wednesday morning.”

The source said Rajapaksa now planned to go to Thailand for a short stay but return to Singapore.

Thai authorities said Rajapaksa had no intention of seeking political asylum and would only stay temporarily.

“This is a humanitarian issue and there is an agreement that it’s a temporary stay,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters on Wednesday. Prayuth also said Rajapaksa could not participate in any political activities while in Thailand.

Foreign minister Don Pramudwinai said the current Sri Lankan government supported Rajapaksa’s trip to Thailand, adding that the former president’s diplomatic passport would allow him to stay for 90 days.

Officials in Sri Lanka have said the ousted leader is expected to return but have given few details on when that will happen.