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MONETABRIEF – The prosecution of high-profile individuals from the former Rajapaksa administrations is set to escalate this month with the clearing of legal hurdles and administrative bottlenecks, according to officials involved in the process.
Former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s attempt to secure an order preventing his arrest in connection with the Easter Sunday massacre was turned down by the Court of Appeal on Thursday.
An overseas travel ban has been in operation against Rajapaksa since June, but the Criminal Investigations Department made no move to question him. He instead filed a writ application seeking an order preventing his possible arrest.
President of the Court of Appeal Rohantha Abeysuriya noted that the court would not interfere with the investigative process. Any attempt by the court would amount to an obstruction of the investigation.
In an unrelated case, the same court rejected an application by opposition legislator Dilith Jayaweera seeking the quashing of a contempt charge filed against him by the Fort magistrate. The charges against Jayaweera and a few other opposition politicians are expected to be taken up in the coming week.
Jayaweera and other opposition politicians — Wimal Weerawansa, Udaya Gammanpila, Sugeeshwara Bandara, and Asanka Navaratne
— were hauled up over their remarks relating to the arrest of Suresh Sallay, the former head of the State Intelligence Service.
SLPP academic Mahinda Pathirana is also charged over his public comments about Sallay’s arrest in February under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son, legislator Namal Rajapaksa, is already in remand custody following his arrest in connection with three cases of bribery and money laundering relating to the 2013 Airbus deal and the Krrish property development in Colombo.
Although Namal has been granted bail in the Airbus money laundering charge, he is in custody until October 13 over the bribery charge relating to the same Airbus transaction. His arrest is under a provision of the Anti-Corruption Act that does not allow a magistrate to grant bail unless under exceptional circumstances.
Meanwhile, his mother Shiranthi Rajapaksa, who had been asked to report to the Financial Crimes Investigations Division on September 24, was a no-show and was yet to return from Singapore.
She had travelled overseas on September 16, and a family spokesman said she was handed the FCID summons at the departure lounge of Bandaranaike International Airport just before she boarded a flight to Singapore.
At the time, the family spokesman said she was due to return in three days.
“We will see greater momentum in the legacy cases in the coming weeks,” an official involved in the prosecutions said.
“We have cleared the legal hurdles to press ahead with more arrests,” he said.
“We are working on a few administrative issues which will be resolved very soon.”
The controversial prosecution of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe is dragging on without him being formally indicted since his arrest in August last year. The Fort magistrate has listed the case again for November 11, when the Attorney-General is expected to report on his decision regarding action against Wickremesinghe.
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Social media backlash over Lankan cricket legend’s Ryanair ‘racist’ remark
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Warning for strong winds and rough seas Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre Issued at 03.00 p.m. 01 November 2026, valid for the next 24 hours.
For: Multi-day boats in the Bay of Bengal deep sea areas off the coast extending from Mannar to Trincomalee via Kankasanthurai.
The Deep Depression over the Southeast Bay of Bengal has intensified into a Cyclone and named as ‘MURASU’ and was located near latitude 12.1°N and longitude 85.3°E at 11.30 a.m. on 01 November 2026.
Cyclone Murasu is very likely to move west-northwestwards and intensify further into a Severe Cyclonic Storm over the West-central Bay of Bengal around 2nd November morning. Thereafter it is very likely to move northwestwards and cross Andhra Pradesh coast to India as a Severe Cyclonic Storm during midnight of 2nd to early hours of 3rd November, 2026.
Wind speeds in the sea areas marked under the “Warning” category in the map below, may increase to (70-80) kmph at times, heavy thundershowers can occur, and these sea areas will become very rough.
Therefore, Naval and fishing communities are warned not to venture to the deep-sea areas bounded by 10N-15N and 80E-90E, until further notice.
Further, Naval and fishing communities operating in those sea areas are advised to move to safe areas. Also, naval and fishing communities are warned not to venture to the deep sea areas off the coast extending from Mannar to Trincomalee via Kankasanthurai until further notice.
The Sri Lanka Navy is continuing search and rescue operations today, 1 November 2026, to locate 7 fishermen who have failed to return after setting sail from Kudawella and Chalai.
Four (4) fishermen failed to return after departing from the Kudawella fisheries harbour on 21 October while another 3 fishermen have not been heard of since leaving the Chalai area for fishing activities on 26 October.
Naval ships and craft attached to the Southern, Northern and Eastern Naval Commands have been deployed to cover the respective sea areas as operations continue.
MONETABRIEF – Sri Lankan cricket legend Kumar Sangakkara’s “racist” allegation against Ryanair has ignited a social media debate over discrimination, while an airline that had nothing to do with the controversy apologised to him.
The responses to Sangakkara’s post on Wednesday saw X users divided, with many expressing solidarity while others questioned his choice of an ultra-low-cost carrier and whether he expected to be treated like a celebrity in a country not known for cricket.
Swiss, Switzerland’s national airline, took the biscuit by apologising to Sangakkara “for the inconvenience you have faced with us”. He did not fly Swiss!
X user @raamki responded to Swiss: “Dude, he didn’t even fly your airline. He is complaining about Ryanair, why are you apologising for nothing?”
Sangakkara’s complaint against Ryanair came days after the Lankadeepa newspaper reported that the Criminal Investigations Department was continuing an investigation into a land fraud involving his wife.
The Sinhala-language newspaper, through a Right to Information (RTI) request, established that a five-year CID investigation into the alleged Sigiriya land fraud remains unfinished and that key documents had been submitted for scrutiny in November last year.
The Sangakkaras are accused of forging documents to show that they are low-income earners entitled to have a plot of state land transferred from another low-income leaseholder.
Sangakkara has said that a broker, whom they did not know, had falsified documents to arrange the transaction, but the case is yet to go to trial as investigations were still under way, according to the RTI response from the Dambulla Divisional Secretariat.
Explaining the incident at Dublin Airport on Wednesday, Sangakkara said the behaviour of Ryanair gate staff there had been threatening.
“Has anyone experienced discriminatory gate personnel @Ryanair in Dublin? My family and I just did and it was shocking,” Sangakkara said on X.
“The tone of address, the mishandling of procedure and the threatening behaviour were unacceptable for any passenger. My first bad experience in Dublin.”
When X user @IrelandMeda argued that treating everyone exactly the same was not discrimination “even if someone accustomed to special privileges feels slighted by it”, Sangakkara replied that the treatment had been racist.
“When we were told that people like you … with your kind of passports should expect this treatment, and that if we argued against that obviously disgusting comment we would be considered a threat to other passengers and not boarded, that is not treating everyone exactly the same – it is racist,” he said.
@IrelandMeda replied: “It is a budget airline. No one argues.”
London’s Daily Mail reported that the dispute concerned a pre-boarding check of travel documents, including visas for entry to the UK.
Ryanair said in a statement: “This passenger refused to provide the required visa documentation when requested by a gate agent carrying out mandatory immigration checks.
“Following completion of these checks and verification of this passenger’s eligibility to travel, this passenger travelled on this scheduled flight from Dublin to Bristol (Oct 28).”
Another X user, @Namal0001, added: “Not giving special treatment to the rich and famous is not discrimination.”
Sri Lanka tech entrepreneur Sanjiva Weerawarana weighed in sayinghe had experienced “discrimination in every part of the West.”
“I lived there for 16 years, traveled back and forth for another 25 and now I’m done. Don’t miss it for a bit and will only go for something I need to go to; I see no need to accept being treated like shit,” Weerawarana, a co-founder of WSO2, said on X.
Several Sri Lankans questioned why Sangakkara, arguably one of the wealthiest cricketers the country has produced, would choose Europe’s cheapest low-cost carriers.
“Why do people with money fly Ryanair?” asked @nayanaGeneva. “I always fly national carriers unless I really don’t have a choice.”
The Daily Mail said Sangakkara now lives mainly in Dorset, having moved there with his family in early 2022, and also owns a property in Galle.
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