Sri Lankan police on Friday arrested the country’s former president and senior opposition politician Ranil Wickremesinghe over allegations of misusing public funds during his tenure as president, police said. Wickremesinghe, who served as the island nation’s president from 2022 to 2024, was arrested on allegations of using public funds to attend his wife’s graduation ceremony in London after an official visit to the U.S, police spokesman Fedrick Wootler told The Associated Press. Wickremesinghe’s aide, Danushka Ramanayake, said that the former president has been taken to a court after being arrested by the Financial Crimes Investigations Department. Wickremesinghe is the first Sri Lankan former head of state to be arrested and is the most high profile leader who is under investigation for corruption under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government which came to power last year promising to punish those accused of corruption under previous governments. Dissanayake won the presidential election in September last year in an election that saw voters reject an old guard accused of leading the country into an economic crisis. Two months later, his party won a landslide victory in the parliamentary election that enabled him to form a strong government.

Full report : Former Sri Lankan President Wickremesinghe arrested on allegations of misusing state funds.