Sri Lanka's former first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa taken into custody

Shiranthi Rajapaksa, the wife of long-serving Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, was detained on Wednesday on suspicion of misusing donations. The money in question went to her charity while she was the country's first lady.

Police first questioned Rajapaksa at her home and then brought her before a court. The court ordered her held for one week pending investigation. Officers then escorted her to a vehicle that was to take her to jail. One of her eyes was bandaged following recent surgery.

The allegations

She is accused of misusing funds that her charity received as a donation from a state-owned bank. The money had been earmarked for buying a scanner for a government hospital. The bank's head at the time was also arrested, accused of bypassing procedures when releasing the money to the charity. A court later granted him bail.

The couple's son, lawmaker Namal Rajapaksa, has also been detained on bribery charges.

The family's political trajectory

Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa led the military campaign that defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, ending a 26-year civil war. The family was widely admired by the Sinhala Buddhist majority as a result. His standing fell after he won re-election in 2010, amid widespread accusations of bribery, corruption and curbs on freedoms, and he lost his bid for a third term in 2015. His son, brothers, nephews and nieces held senior government posts.

The family returned to power in 2019, when security became a central concern after Islamic State-inspired suicide bombings at churches and hotels on Easter Sunday killed 267 people. Gotabhaya was elected president that year, but the country then suffered an economic collapse driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, a slump in tourism and his own economic decisions. Mass protests forced him to resign and leave the country.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake subsequently became president. In his 2024 campaign he ran on an anti-corruption platform and pledged to act against anyone suspected of corruption in the Rajapaksa family and the governments that came before.