Steph Deschamps / July 13, 2022
Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who has been reviled by a strong popular movement, left his country early Wednesday on a military plane for the Maldives. He arrived shortly afterwards at Malé airport.
The 73-year-old leader, who has promised to resign and had tried unsuccessfully Tuesday to leave the country, took off from Colombo International Airport with his wife and a bodyguard aboard an Antonov-32. Their passports were stamped and they boarded the special flight operated by the air force, an immigration official said.
The aircraft was held for more than an hour on the airport tarmac waiting for clearance to land in the Maldives. There were moments of tension, but in the end, everything ended well, said an airport official on condition of anonymity.
An official at Malé airport - the capital of the Maldives - said shortly afterwards that the plane had landed and that the three passengers had been taken under police escort to an unknown destination at this stage.
On Tuesday, the president was humiliatingly turned away from Colombo airport by immigration officials. Some of his advisers had envisaged Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his entourage escaping on a patrol boat, according to a senior defence source.
A navy vessel was used to transfer the head of state on Saturday from the presidential palace besieged by protesters to the port of Trincomalee in the northeast of the country. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was then flown by helicopter to Colombo International Airport on Monday. But after missing four flights that could have taken them to the United Arab Emirates, he had to spend Monday night in a military base near the international airport.
On Tuesday, immigration officials had refused him access to the VIP lounge to have his passport stamped, while the head of state wanted to avoid the terminal open to the public, fearing the reaction of the population.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has not yet resigned, which he promised to do on Wednesday for a peaceful transition of power.
If the head of state resigns as promised, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will automatically be appointed interim president until Parliament elects a member to serve until the end of the current term in November 2024.