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Sri Lanka’s Gotabaya Rajapaksa returns weeks after fleeing island | Politics News

Rajapaksa resigned as president in July after protesters angered by a debilitating economic crisis stormed his office and residence.

Sri Lanka’s deposed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has returned home weeks after fleeing the crisis-hit country, officials said.

The 73-year-old former leader landed in the capital, Colombo, on a Singapore Airlines flight from Thailand in the early hours of Saturday, local media reports said.

Rajapaksa resigned in July after tens of thousands of protesters angered by a debilitating economic crisis stormed his office and residence.

He fled to the Maldives on July 9, went to Singapore from there and spent the past few weeks in Thailand on a diplomatic visa.

Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez, reporting from Colombo, confirmed Rajapaksa’s return.

“We do have confirmation that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has returned to the country,” she said.

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