Sri Lanka’s Gotabaya Rajapaksa returns weeks after fleeing island

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

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.