Team News Riveting
Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country after plunging it into worst-ever economic crisis, has finally arrived in Thailand on Thursday for a temporary stay.
Rajapaksa reportedly landed in Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport today evening via a charter plane from Singapore’s Seletar Airport. Following people unrest, Rajapaksa had fled Sri Lanka for Singapore on July 14 and resigned from office shortly afterwards.
Earlier, after failing to flee to the Arab nations, embattled Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa landed in neighbouring Maldives on his way to Singapore.
He had attempted to take a flight to Dubai and Abu Dhabi but the airport officials foiled the move. However, President Rajapaksa managed to flee Sri Lanka and arrived in the neighboring Maldives, mere hours before he was due to step down from his post following the civilian uprising prompted by the island nation’s devastating economic crisis.
Reports said that Rajapaksa escaped in the middle of the night to Male City, the capital of Maldives, on an AN32 troop transport plane from the Sri Lanka Air Force. He was accompanied by his wife and two security personnel.
“Pursuant to the request of the government and in accordance with the powers vested in a President in the Constitution of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Air Force provided a plane early today to fly the President, his wife and two security officials to the Maldives,” Sri Lankan air force confirmed in a statement.
Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said the ousted president can stay in Thailand for 90 days as he is still a diplomatic passport holder, the report said.
Don said the Sri Lankan government did not oppose the visit and the Thai government would not make accommodation arrangements for him. The visit would not pose conflicts with Colombo as acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe had worked for him when he was in power, he added.
The minister said a condition for Rajapaksa’s stay was that he should not cause problems for Thailand.
