Sri Lanka crisis: Rajapaksa to formally resign today, celebrations break out in Colombo

Speaker is informed that after re-checking data & completing all legal proceedings, official announcement in this regard will be announced tomorrow: Speaker's Press Secy

"We are here to see a criminal" and a "fugitive who devastated our economy," some two dozen Sri Lankans living in Singapore said on Thursday as they showed up at the Changi International Airport after hearing that President Gotabya Rajapaksa who fled the country to the Maldives will land here.  Saudi Airlines flight carrying Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore from the Maldives in the evening and soon Singapore's Foreign Ministry confirmed his presence in the country on a "private visit" and there was no request for asylum from him. Rajapaksa has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted any asylum. Singapore generally does not grant requests for asylum, the foreign ministry spokesperson added. The Sri Lankans who arrived at the airport described the 73-year-old Rajapaksa as a "fugitive", "corrupt", and "a war criminal", outpouring their anger over the president's "U-turn from his promise of resignation" on Wednesday and escape from Colombo to the Maldives, triggering a fresh wave of protests in the island nation.
Rajapaksa, who enjoys immunity from prosecution while he is president, fled the country without resigning to avoid the possibility of arrest by the new government.

The Indian High Commission in Maldives on Thursday termed as "baseless" the reports that suggest that the Government of India was involved in the reported transit of embattled Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa through the Maldives. Earlier in the day, 73-year-old Rajapaksa, who had fled to the Maldives on Wednesday from Sri Lanka amidst a public revolt against him, left the country for Singapore. He departed from the Maldives on a Saudi Airline flight to Singapore. The Singapore government later confirmed that it has allowed President Rajapaksa to enter the country on a "private visit".
The Indian High Commission here in a tweet "categorically denies baseless reports that suggest that Govt of India was involved in the reported transit of @GotabayaR through the Maldives".

Sri Lanka’s Parliament will not convene on Friday as Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena is yet to receive President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation letter, the Speaker’s Office said on Thursday. The next date for the meeting will be announced within the next three days if President Rajapaksa's resignation letter is received by the Speaker today, the Speaker's Office said. On Monday, Abeywardena had announced that Parliament will elect the new Sri Lankan President on July 20 following Rajapaksa’s resignation on July 13. But Rajapaksa, 73, appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the acting President hours after he fled the country without resigning as previously announced. Abeywardena, who on Thursday, informed Rajapaksa that he should submit his letter of resignation as soon as possible or else he will consider other options to remove him from the office.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa emailed his resignation to the speaker, state media said on Thursday. The President had earlier landed in Singapore with his wife. Singapore said it has allowed Rajapaksa to enter the city-state on a "private visit" from the Maldives and there was no request for asylum from him, after he fled the country in the face of public revolt against his government's mishandling of the economy. | TAP HERE TO READ

"He entered on private visit, he has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted asylum", reports Reuters.

 The Sri Lankan Army on Thursday urged the anti-government protesters to desist from violence immediately or be prepared to face the "consequences", warning that the security forces are "legitimately empowered" to exercise force.

At least 84 people were hospitalised when protesters clashed with the security forces at the prime minister’s office and at the main access junction to Parliament on Wednesday after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country. The police fired tear gas and water cannons at the mob who were trying to break barriers and enter the restricted zone.

Authorities on Wednesday imposed a curfew in the Western Province following the eruption of violence. The curfew was lifted in the morning. But it had to be reimposed amid fears of violence as there was no word from President Rajapaksa on his resignation.

Anticipating more protests after a group attempted to storm Parliament's entrance a day earlier, troops in green military uniforms and camouflage vests reinforced security at the Parliament on Thursday.

The Army in a statement urged the protestors to "desist from all forms of violence immediately or be prepared to face consequences as members of the Armed Forces are legitimately empowered to exercise their force, if the situation deems necessary as security to the public property, key installations, vulnerable points and human lives, does fall within the purview of their responsibility."

Sri Lanka's former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and ex-finance minister Basil Rajapaksa on Thursday gave an undertaking to the Supreme Court through their lawyers that they will not leave the crisis-hit country until the Fundamental Rights petition filed against them is heard on Friday, a media report said on Thursday. A five-judge bench of Lankan Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, Justice Buwaneka Aluwihare, Justice Priyantha Jayawardena, Justice Vijith Malalgoda, and Justice LTB Dehideniya are scheduled to hear on Friday the petition against the two members of the erstwhile powerful Rajapaksa family, the Daily Mirror Lanka website reported. A petition was filed in the apex court as Basil Rajapaksa, the younger brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was earlier on Tuesday turned back at the Colombo airport as he attempted to leave the country through the VIP terminal.