CID Moves on Ex-President Secretary

Former Presidential Secretary Saman Ekanayake is set to face charges over approving state funds for the controversial 2023 UK visit by then-President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his delegation.

The CID has requested the court to seize his passport, saying that traveling abroad could affect the investigation and that more evidence may need to be collected. The case is connected to former President Wickremesinghe’s detention.

Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe was remanded in custody on Friday, August 22, 2025, by the Colombo Fort Magistrate. He is remanded until Monday, August 26, 2025, while CID investigations continue into allegations that he misused 16.6 million rupees ($55,000) of state funds for the trip, which coincided with his wife Maithree’s conferring of an honorary professorship in Britain. While Wickremesinghe insists her expenses were privately borne, investigators allege that public money was used for his own travel.

Opposition parties, including the SJB and Wickremesinghe’s UNP, have denounced the arrest as politically motivated, accusing President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s leftist government of seeking to block the former leader’s potential return to power.

This investigation is part of the ongoing broader corruption investigations, including the Central Bank bond scam, which is being tried without former Governor Arjuna Mahendran.

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