Wednesday, September 9 2026
Wednesday, September 9 2026
MONETABRIEF – Sri Lanka's main minority Tamil political party backed the prosecution of opposition legislator Namal Rajapaksa on a bribery charge, saying that had the government acted earlier, the Rajapaksa clan might not have been able to appear in public.
Tamil National Alliance MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam told Parliament that a vast majority of people in the country were celebrating Friday’s arrest of Rajapaksa on allegations that he received a 100 million (currency unspecified) bribe from Airbus Industrie.
"When Mr Namal Rajapaksa was arrested and remanded, we stated clearly: this is not political victimisation. If he has engaged in theft or corruption, bring him before the law and administer the necessary punishment," he said. "We support that process."
Namal Rajapaksa has been remanded till September 18, but he is able to attend parliamentary sessions.
Rasamanickam cautioned that the country’s minority Tamil community was yet to receive solutions to their outstanding issues, such as the military occupying their lands even 17 years after the end of the war.
He also criticised the new government for failing, despite its pledges, to ensure accountability for wartime atrocities allegedly committed by government forces.
"A vast majority of the country’s people may be celebrating the arrest of Mr Namal Rajapaksa, but we are looking with great earnestness at our own unresolved grievances.
"If you had properly addressed these issues from the very beginning, two years ago, through accountability and governance, Namal Rajapaksa would not even have been able to step out in public to hold political rallies.
"This is because there are matters directly connected to the Rajapaksas," said Rasamanickam, who had previously aligned himself with former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's party.
The TNA strongly backed the latest statement by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Sri Lanka, which called on the government to address the culture of impunity for war crimes and other rights abuses.
“As stated in the High Commissioner’s statement, two years have passed and it is already late, but an opportunity still remains to move towards a permanent solution,” he said. (COLOMBO/Sept 9/2026)
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