Former President, his brothers responsible for economic crisis: Sri Lanka Supreme Court

Colombo: Sri Lankan Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his brothers PM and Finance Minister and top officials were responsible for country’s economic crisis that lead to country’s bankruptcy.

The five-judge-bench of the apex court held former President, who fled the country, his two brothers PM Mahinda Rajapaksa and Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, former Central Bank Governor, former Treasury Secretary have violated the public trust and fundamental rights of the people by mishandling Indian Ocean island nation’s economy.

A public watch dog on corruptions, Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), a number of academics and civil rights activists filing several public interest litigations had called for action against those responsible for the economic crisis that forced people to get on to the streets and topple the government last year.

The petitioners complained that ex-president’s multiple wrong decisions that included awarding tax reliefs of nearly Sri Lankan Rupee 680 billion to selected businessmen, allowing the local currency to fall with heavy money printing in trillions of rupees specially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the delay in going for the IMF assistance and the repayment of USD 500 million sovereign bonds when country was going through a severe crisis caused the worst ever economic crisis in the post-independent Sri Lanka.