The leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF) told Sri Lanka’s parliament that the US ambassador in the country had used “psychological barriers” on former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, leaving him “incapable of taking certain decisions”.

In an address to parliament this morning, former Rajapaksa ally Wimal Weerawansa claimed that the influence of the US Ambassador Julie Chung had left Rajapaksa incapacitated.

A 28-year-old Muslim from Galle has been detained by Sri Lanka’s security forces after allegedly posting “hate speech” against the military on Facebook last week.

According to a press release from the Sri Lankan police, the man shared a post on Facebook condemning the army and aiming to “incite violence”.

He was detained by Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department, which has been actively monitoring social media posts across the island for years.

When the case was taken up at the Galle Magistrate’s Court, the CID objected to granting the man bail and he has since ben remanded until the 08th of August 2022.

Singapore has extended the stay of Sri Lanka’s former President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa by two weeks, according to Reuters, amidst growing calls for the arrest of the accused war criminal.

Rajapaksa is now able to stay in Singapore until August 11, according to two separate sources in Colombo and Singapore, who spoke to Reuters.

Tamil Nadu has donated humanitarian supplies worth around Rs. 3.4 billion to Sri Lanka to help combat the ongoing economic crisis that has ravaged the island.

British lawmaker and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, Elliot Colburn wrote to the Attorney General of Singapore yesterday, calling on the country’s authorities to arrest former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and “exercise universal jurisdiction for grave abuses of the Geneva Conventions”. 

Colburn told Attorney General Lucien Wong; 

Even as political and economic turmoil rages in the South of the island, in the North-East Sri Lankan troops continued to intrude into the everyday life of civilians as the state intensified its militarisation of the region. 

Sri Lanka’s besieged former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa will reportedly return to the island just weeks after fleeing the country, as organisations around the world call for the former military man to be prosecuted for war crimes and genocide. 

Cabinet Spokesperson Bandula Gunawardena told journalists that Rajapaksa “will return to Sri Lanka soon” though did not provide an exact date. 

Tamil and human rights organizations from across the world, issued a joint letter urging Singapore’s Attorney-General's Chambers to investigate and prosecute Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his involvement in international crimes during the culmination of the Tamil Genocide in 2009. 

A US court sentenced Sri Lanka’s former ambassador to Washington to a US$5,000 fine and two years probation last week, in a case that may have reverberations in Colombo and capitals around the world.

Jaliya Chitran Wickramasuriya, Colombo’s former ambassador to the United States, has pled guilty to diverting and attempting to embezzle US$332,027 from the government of Sri Lanka, as it purchased a new embassy building in Washington in 2013.

China Premier, Xi Jinping, and Russian President, Vladimir Putin, were amongst the first world leaders to congratulate Ranil Wickremesinghe for his appointment as Sri Lanka’s President.

The statements follow tense exchanges with western diplomats critical of his brutal suppression of protesters, which saw the military attack demonstrators, injuring at least 50.