In a big relief to Sri Lanka’s former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Fort Magistrate court on Wednesday lifted an overseas travel ban on him.
The court also lifted bans on other politicians, too, for their alleged role in the deadly attack on peaceful anti-government protesters in Colombo. It also ordered the officials to immediately release their passports.
2022 Protests in Sir Lanka
Last year, thousands of citizens took to the streets of Colombo and torched the houses of several parliamentarians’ homes and offices amidst the unprecedented economic crisis in the island nation.
The protesters were demanding the resignation of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his younger brother and the then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The Rajapaksa family has dominated Sri Lankan politics for over two decades.
Mahinda Rajapaksa was later replaced by Ranil Wickremesinghe, a member of the Opposition and a long-standing rival of the Rajapaksas, as prime minister.
In mid-July, Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka to the Maldives and then returned to the country in January.