Sri Lanka arrests ex-navy chief on corruption charges

COLOMBO: Authorities in Sri Lanka arrested a former navy commander on Friday over allegations he illegally helped secure the recruitment and overseas training of ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son.

Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda, 73, was taken into custody by the Bribery Commission over the 2006 enlistment of Yoshitha Rajapaksa without the required qualifications.

Karannagoda was the navy commander when Sri Lanka’s decades-long Tamil separatist war ended in 2009. He was elevated to the rank of admiral of the fleet in 2019, and currently has no active role in the navy.

Yoshitha Rajapaksa, 38, is out on bail following his arrest last month in a related case in which he is accused of using public funds for training at Britain’s prestigious naval college in Dartmouth.

“The Admiral of the Fleet has committed the offence of corruption in the recruitment and training of Yoshitha Rajapaksa,” the Bribery Commission said in a statement.

Karannagoda also faces allegations of war crimes and was sanctioned by Britain in March 2025 after being accused of serious human rights violations and extrajudicial killings.

He faces additional conspiracy to murder charges over the killing of 11 young men between 2008 and 2009.

Those charges were initially dropped in October 2021, when Mahinda Rajapaksa’s younger brother Gotabaya was president, but they were later revived under the administration of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who came to power in September 2024 on a pledge to crack down on corruption and unsolved high-profile crimes.

Cases against the Rajapaksa family and their associates have gained renewed impetus since Dissanayake’s election.

Several Rajapaksa family members and close associates have been charged with a range of offences over the years, all of which remain pending before the courts.

Yoshitha Rajapaksa is also facing criminal prosecution after failing to explain the sources of income used to purchase a house while his father was in power from 2005 to 2015.

He told investigators that he raised money by selling gems given to him by his grandaunt, who could not recall how she had obtained the precious stones.

His uncle Gotabaya Rajapaksa was handed a foreign travel ban last month over his alleged links to the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 279 people.