Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa flees country with wife, lands in Male

COLOMBO: Reports say Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has landed in Maldives. He left the country on an Air Force plane. Gotabaya was accompanied by his wife and two bodyguards.

Gotabaya was received by the Maldivian government representatives at the Velana airport in Male.

Rajapaksa had earlier announced to resign on Wednesday. Rajapaksa enjoys immunity from arrest, and he is believed to have wanted to go abroad before stepping down to avoid the possibility of being detained.

The departure of the 73-year-old leader once known as ‘The Terminator’ had been stymied for more than 24 hours in a humiliating stand-off with immigration personnel at the airport.

He had wanted to fly to Dubai on a commercial flight, but staff at Bandaranaike International withdrew from VIP services and insisted that all passengers had to go through public counters.

The presidential party were reluctant to go through regular channels fearing public reactions, a security official said, and as a result missed four flights on Monday that could have taken them to the United Arab Emirates.

Clearance for a military flight to land in the closest neighbour India was not immediately secured, a security official said, and at one point on Tuesday, the group headed to a naval base with a view to fleeing by sea.

Rajapaksa’s youngest brother Basil, who resigned in April as finance minister, missed his own Emirates flight to Dubai early on Tuesday after a tense standoff of his own with airport staff.