Sri Lanka remands Rajapaksa’s son in laundering case

Namal Rajapaksa ... in the spotlight

COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan court Monday remanded in custody the eldest son of Sri Lanka’s strongman former president on a fresh money-laundering charge.
Namal Rajapaksa, who is a legislator from an opposition faction loyal to his father Mahinda Rajapaksa, was remanded in custody for a week in a hearing at a magistrates’ court in the capital Colombo.
“The order was given in connection with a new allegation that he was responsible for laundering 45 million rupees ($310,000) through two of his companies,” a court official told AFP.
It is the second such accusation to be filed against Namal, who is also facing separate charges that he accepted more than $500,000 from an Indian company as a kickback to speed up a property development venture in Colombo. The ex-president’s younger son Yoshitha is already facing similar money-laundering charges over dealings at his private television channel, Carlton Sports Network.