Lawyers for former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa informed the Sri Lankan Supreme Court that they will not flee the island until the Fundamental Rights petition filed against them has been heard.

As the credibly accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa submitted his letter of resignation as President, the announcement triggered jubilation in Colombo, as protestors gathered outside the presidential secretariat, defying a city-wide curfew to celebrate. 

Crowds of protestors in the south set off firecrackers, shouted slogans and danced at the Gota Go Gama protest site, named in mockery of Rajapaksa's first name. 

Amidst the chaos in Colombo, Sri Lankan war criminal and army commander Sarath Fonseka has claimed he is ready to become President if supported by the majority and may be supported by the formerly Rajapaksa-aligned Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP).

The Mullaitivu court has ordered the removal of all new constructions, including an illegally built Buddhist shrine, on Kurunthurmalai, a hill-top site of an ancient Tamil temple in the district’s Thannimurippu area.

The current speaker of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed announced that Sri Lanka’s embattled president “has resigned” just moments after he landed in Singapore as he fled the island.

Responding to the ongoing political and economic crisis in Sri Lanka, Tamil civil society groups have issued a group statement urging all actors to seize this historic opportunity for “real change for an island plagued by decades of ethnic conflict”.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resigned as Sri Lanka’s President after he fled the island amidst mass protests demanding his resignation. 

The resignation letter was reportedly sent by email to the speaker of parliament. The resignation will be formally announced on Friday.

Rajapaksa has been trying to flee Sri Lanka since Saturday after tens of thousands of protesters stormed his official residence. 

The Sri Lankan army warned that troops were “legitimately empowered to exercise their force,” after it claimed two rifles were snatched from soldiers by protestors on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka’s besieged president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has reportedly left the Maldives, where he fled to earlier this week and is currently on his way to Singapore.

According to the Associated Press, the war crimes accused president will then fly to Saudi Arabia, from Singapore.

Amidst excessive efforts of the Sri Lankan state to suppress the work of journalists in the northeast, journalists of the Mullaitivu Press Club, Tamil university students, and Tamil journalists in Batticaloa protested to condemn the suppression of media and the recent attacks on journalists by Sri Lankan security forces in the south. 

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, stressed that the “developments in Sri Lanka are its internal affair.”

Sri Lanka’s fleeing president Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued a gazette stating he is “unable to exercise, perform and discharge” his duties as president, and that he appoints prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as acting president.

Outgoing Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will submit his resignation letter to Sri Lankan parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena after arriving in Singapore. 

Singapore is set to grant asylum to Rajapaksa, the Indian television channel Republic TV reported.