Rajapaksa and his wife flew to Male, Maldives, on an AN32 troop transport plane from the Sri Lankan Air Force, the official said.
Local air traffic control rejected the request to land the plane until the intervention of Maldives Parliament Speaker Majlis and former President Mohamed Nasheed, according to the official. CNN has contacted Nasheed to comment.
Assaulted Rajapaksa had previously been blocked from leaving Sri Lanka at least twice on Monday, after refusing to join a public immigration queue at Bandaranaike International Airport, a military source told CNN. ‘high rank.
Rajapaksa’s aides arrived at Colombo airport on Monday with 15 passports belonging to the president and members of his family, including First Lady Ioma Rajapaksa, who had reserved seats on a Sri Lankan Airlines flight departing for Dubai in at 6:25 p.m. local time, according to the military source.
But immigration officials refused to process the passports given to them by presidential aides, as Rajapaksa and his family were not physically present for cross-checks. Eventually, the flight left without the president and his family on board, the source added.
Another attempt was made to take the family on an Etihad flight scheduled to leave Colombo for Abu Dhabi at 9:20 p.m., according to the source, but the same problem occurred as the Rajapaksas refused to join. -in the public immigration queue for the flight. .
In both cases, the Rajapaksa family was in a nearby airport lounge, awaiting confirmation that they could board without queuing among members of the public, the source said.
On Tuesday, a video posted by a former police officer claimed that Rajapaksa was staying in a private house that belonged to a senior Air Force commander. The Sri Lankan Air Force has denied the claim, describing it as propaganda aimed at tarnishing the image of the body and its head.
Forced to resign
Rajapaksa’s planned resignation on Wednesday – which after months of protests over the country’s crippling economic crisis – would leave him without presidential immunity and potentially exposed to a number of legal charges in the country.
He has been accused of high levels of corruption and economic mismanagement, which eventually bankrupted the country and triggered its worst financial crisis since independence. He agreed to leave his office on Saturday, after more than 100,000 people gathered outside his residence and demanded his resignation. Then some of the protesters burst into the property and splashed in their pool.
Shocking images shared on social media showed protesters singing protest songs and chanting slogans calling for Rajapaksa’s resignation. Other photographs showed groups of protesters installing barbecues for grilling and cooking food.
Report by journalist Rukshana Rizwie.