Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned on Thursday evening amid mounting anti-government protests in the country. Gotabaya, who is currently in Singapore after fleeing the country in the face of violent agitations in Colombo, sent his resignation to Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.
Gotabaya had promised that he would resign on Wednesday to pave way for the formation of an all-party government. He, however, fled to Maldives and appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Acting President, escalating the political crisis and triggering a fresh wave of protests in the island nation.
On Thursday, he landed in Singapore in a Saudi airlines flight - SV 788. A spokesperson for Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Rajapaksa has been "allowed entry into Singapore on a private visit". He has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted any asylum, the spokesperson said, adding Singapore generally does not grant requests for asylum.
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.
Speaker Abeywardena on Thursday informed Rajapaksa that he should submit his resignation letter as soon as possible or else he will consider other options to remove him from the office.
Gotabaya's brothers—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 country until the Fundamental Rights petition filed against them is heard on Friday, the Daily Mirror reported.
A five-judge bench of Lankan Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Friday the petition against the two members of the erstwhile powerful Rajapaksa family.
Mahinda, the patriarch of the Rajapaksa clan, resigned from the post of prime minister on May 9, hours after his supporters attacked anti-government protesters outside President Rajapaksa's office.
Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other essentials.
With PTI inputs