Sri Lanka's ex-first lady arrested over alleged misuse of children's hospital donations

ByBBC Sinhala and Yvette Tan.

Key points

• Mahinda Rajapaksa served as president of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015 and for years, his family held a tight grip over the country's politics.
• Anti-corruption authorities arrested the 73-year-old wife of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at their Colombo home on Wednesday.
• But in 2022, protests broke out nationwide as inflation surged and Sri Lanka ran out of fuel, food and medicine.
• Sri Lanka's current administration, under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has since revived long-stalled corruption investigations involving various members of the Rajapaksa family.
• Ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa's spokesperson, Manoj Gamage, has remarked the capital is safe in Siriliya's accounts and that no fraud has occurred.

Sri Lanka's former first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa has been arrested over allegations that a charity she is linked to misused donations raised for a children's hospital.

They are questioning her over the 10 million rupees ($30, 300; £22, 800) of donations collected by the Siriliya Saviya charity, meant to be spent on a specialised scanner for Colombo's Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital.

But authorities say such a scanner had already been donated by the Chinese administration.

Shiranthi Rajapaksa has denied any wrongdoing and notes the capital has not been appropriated.

She returned to Sri Lanka on Monday from Singapore, where she was receiving medical treatment. She had filed a court petition to try to prevent her arrest, but the hearing was set for 12 October.

Mahinda Rajapaksa served as president of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015 and for years, his family held a tight grip over the country's politics. He was hailed by plenty of as a hero for bringing an end to almost three decades of civil war when Tamil Tiger rebels were crushed in 2009, during his first term as president.

Mahinda's brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa. This person was serving as leader at that time, was eventually toppled.

Mahinda and Shiranthi's eldest son, Namal Rajapaksa, was arrested earlier this year over allegations linked to an aircraft procurement accord produced during his father's presidency. He is at present held in remand.

His brother Yoshitha was additionally arrested earlier this year on corruption charges.

Taken together, the developments around sri Lanka' s ex-first lady arrested over alleged misuse of children' s hospital donations point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.