Sri Lanka remands Namal Rajapaksa until 18 September over Airbus deal

Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama remanded Namal Rajapaksa until 18 September after Sri Lanka's Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption arrested him on 4 September. The 40-year-old SLPP national organiser and sitting MP was questioned for more than five hours over the 2013 purchase of Airbus aircraft by SriLankan Airlines.

His lawyer, Nishantha Dayananda, confirmed the arrest and sought bail. The court refused. Deputy Solicitor General Janaka Bandara appeared for CIABOC.

What prosecutors put on the record

In court, the commission said the arrest rested in part on an affidavit from businessman Nimal Perera. Investigators had travelled to Australia, where Perera now lives, and recorded a statement. Perera alleged that $800,000 received by his company from a Biz Solution account was converted into Sri Lankan rupees and handed to Rajapaksa. That sum was about Rs 100 million at the time.

The prosecution also told the magistrate that €1.45 million had been paid by Airbus in connection with the disputed transaction. A Sri Lankan businessman, it said, arranged cash to Rajapaksa through two Singapore bank accounts. Perera declined to return to the island, citing threats to his life.

Airbus officials have visited Sri Lanka three times and given four statements, the court was told. A company delegation was in Colombo in August. The investigation has drawn assistance from authorities in Australia, Singapore, France and the United States.

The 2013 contract and the 2016 cancellation

The original deal was valued at $2.3 billion and covered six Airbus A330 and eight A350 aircraft for the national carrier. A later government cancelled the contract in 2016. The anti-graft case is not about whether the planes flew. It is about whether money from the manufacturer reached Sri Lankan officials and politicians.

Airbus settled with French, British and US authorities in 2020 after a three-year inquiry into bribery on jetliner sales and paid a $4 billion fine. That settlement did not close national cases in buyer countries.

CIABOC questioned former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, Namal's father, in May over the same purchase. The family has denied receiving bribes and called the allegations politically motivated. Namal has denied wrongdoing.

The dead witness and the open warrants

Former SriLankan Airlines chief executive Kapila Chandrasena was arrested on 12 March in the same investigation and later released on bail. He told investigators in March that he had handed nearly half a million dollars in kickbacks to a Rajapaksa. On 8 May, while on bail and shortly before a planned rearrest, he was found dead at a relative's home. Police treated the death as a suspected suicide.

Open warrants remain for Priyanka Niyomali Wijenayake, Chandrasena's wife and the second suspect, and for Shamindra Rajapaksa, named as the third suspect in the Fort Magistrate's Court file on the Airbus deal.

Why the date matters

Namal Rajapaksa is the most visible remaining political heir of a family that dominated Sri Lankan politics for more than a decade and was forced from office after the 2022 economic collapse. Remanding him for two weeks does not decide the case. It does put a sitting opposition organiser in custody on a paper trail that now includes an overseas affidavit, Singapore accounts and cooperation from the aircraft maker.

The next hearing is 18 September. By then CIABOC will have to show whether the $800,000 story survives cross-examination, and whether the death of Chandrasena leaves a hole the remaining witnesses cannot fill.