Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has ruled that the Rajapaksa brothers , who were former Prime Minister, President and Finance Minister, were responsible for Sri Lanka’s economic crisis last year.
Rajapaksa brothers – Neighboring Sri Lanka last year experienced an unprecedented economic crisis after independence. With foreign exchange reserves completely empty, prices skyrocketed. There was a severe shortage of essential commodities like food, fuel and medicine. People who lost their patience and got agitated, took to the streets and fought. Gotabaya Rajapaksa , who was ousted from the presidency due to the months-long struggle, fled abroad.
Then he returned to the country. Sri Lanka is also starting to breathe a little more smoothly with the help of foreign countries like India and China. But Sri Lanka is sitting on a huge debt mountain of $46.9 billion. About half of that is owed to China.
In this situation, Sri Lanka’s International Corruption Watch (Transparency International) and 4 activists filed a case in the country’s Supreme Court regarding the country’s economic crisis.
The 5-judge bench that heard the case gave its verdict the day before yesterday. Among them, 4 judges decided that the reason for the economic crisis in Sri Lanka in 2019-2022 was the mishandling of the economy by the Rajapakse brothers, former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, and former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa. Also, 13 senior officials including former Central Bank of Sri Lanka governors Ajith Nivard Cabral, Laxman, ex-Secretaries of the Treasury Department, Jayasundara and Attikale have said that they have violated the basic rights of the people.
Although the Supreme Court did not impose any penalty on the Rajapaksa brothers and others in this case, it ordered them to pay Rs 1½ lakh each towards the litigation costs of the petitioners.
Following the verdict, it is said that more cases may be filed against the Rajapakse brothers in relation to the economic collapse.
