A collected photo of Ranil Wickremesinghe

COLOMBO, Aug 26, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Sri Lanka's former president Ranil 
Wickremesinghe was granted bail on Tuesday, four days after his arrest on the 
charge of misusing state funds for an overseas visit.

The ex-leader, 76, was arrested on Friday accused of spending $55,000 in 
government funds on a 2023 stopover in Britain while returning from attending 
the G77 summit in Havana and the UN General Assembly in New York.

The Colombo Fort Magistrate Nilupuli Lankapura ordered Wickremesinghe's 
release on a five-million-rupee ($16,600) bond after a lengthy hearing held 
under tight security, including elite troops.

A few hundred protesters had gathered outside the court earlier in the day in 
support of Wickremesinghe, and were met by riot police who held back the 
crowd.

After being remanded in custody on Friday, the former leader was rushed to a 
prison hospital and then the country's main state-run hospital suffering from 
dehydration, but hospital officials said his condition was stable.

Wickremesinghe joined Tuesday's bail hearing via video link from his bed at 
the National Hospital of Colombo, where he is being treated under armed 
guard.

The judge ordered his next hearing for October 29.

His arrest came as part of his successor Anura Kumara Dissanayake's campaign 
against endemic corruption on the island nation, which is still emerging from 
its worst economic crisis in 2022.

Three former Sri Lankan presidents expressed solidarity with Wickremesinghe 
on Sunday and condemned his incarceration as a "calculated assault" on 
democracy.

Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) said it believed he was being 
prosecuted out of fear that he could mount a political comeback.

He lost the presidential election in September to Dissanayake, but has 
remained politically active despite holding no elected office.

He has maintained that his wife's travel expenses in Britain were met by her 
personally and that no state funds were used for the visit.

Wickremesinghe became president in July 2022 after then-leader Gotabaya 
Rajapaksa stepped down following months of street protests fuelled by the 
economic crisis.