Sri Lanka arrests ex-navy chief on corruption charges
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Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda (second from right), who currently has no active role in the navy, also faces allegations of war crimes.
PHOTO: AFP
- Sri Lanka arrested former navy chief Wasantha Karannagoda for corruption related to the illegal recruitment and overseas training of ex-president Rajapaksa’s son, Yoshitha.
- Karannagoda faces additional serious charges, including war crimes and conspiracy to murder, which were revived under the current anti-corruption government.
- The Rajapaksa family members, including Yoshitha and Gotabaya, face multiple investigations and prosecutions for corruption and alleged links to major crimes.
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COLOMBO – The authorities in Sri Lanka arrested a former navy commander on July 3 over allegations he illegally helped secure the recruitment and overseas training of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son.
Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda, 73, was taken into custody by the Bribery Commission over the 2006 enlistment of Yoshitha Rajapaksa without the required qualifications.
Karannagoda was the navy commander when Sri Lanka’s decades-long Tamil separatist war ended in 2009. He was elevated to the rank of admiral of the fleet in 2019, and currently has no active role in the navy.
Yoshitha Rajapaksa, 38, is out on bail following his arrest in June in a related case in which he is accused of using public funds for training at Britain’s prestigious naval college in Dartmouth.
“The Admiral of the Fleet has committed the offence of corruption in the recruitment and training of Yoshitha Rajapaksa,” the Bribery Commission said in a statement.
Karannagoda also faces allegations of war crimes and was sanctioned by Britain in March 2025 after being accused of serious human rights violations and extrajudicial killings.
He faces additional conspiracy to murder charges over the killing of 11 young men between 2008 and 2009.
Those charges were initially dropped in October 2021, when Mahinda Rajapaksa’s younger brother Gotabaya was president, but they were later revived under the administration of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who came to power in September 2024 on a pledge to crack down on corruption and unsolved high-profile crimes.
Cases against the Rajapaksa family and their associates have gained renewed impetus since Dissanayake’s election.
Several Rajapaksa family members and close associates have been charged with a range of offences over the years, all of which remain pending before the courts.
Yoshitha Rajapaksa is also facing criminal prosecution after failing to explain the sources of income used to purchase a house while his father was in power from 2005 to 2015.
He told investigators that he raised money by selling gems given to him by his grandaunt, who could not recall how she had obtained the precious stones.
His uncle Gotabaya Rajapaksa was handed a foreign travel ban in June over his alleged links to the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 279 people. AFP
