The Singapore government has awarded a fresh visa to former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, enabling him to stay in the nation for another 14 days until August 14, according to a media report on Wednesday, news agency PTI reported.
The revelation on Rajapaksa’s travel permit extension came a day after Sri Lanka’s Cabinet spokesperson Bandula Gunawardena stated the ex-president was not hiding and will return to the island nation from Singapore.
Rajapaksa came in Singapore on July 14 on a private visit from the Maldives, where he fled to avoid a mass revolt over his government’s economic incompetence. On July 13, he fled to the Maldives, then to Singapore the next day.
Rajapaksa has been granted a fresh visa, extending his stay in the country until August 11. According to The Straits Times, his visit permission has been extended by 14 days.
After Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that he was admitted on a private visit. The government emphasised that the former president had not requested refuge.
According to the spokeswoman, Singapore does not normally accept asylum claims.
When the ex-president landed at Changi Airport on a Saudia aircraft from the Maldives on July 14, he was given a 14-day visit pass. According to the source, he originally slept at a hotel in the city centre before moving to a private apartment.
In Singapore, he has not been seen in public.
When questioned about Rajapaksa at a weekly Cabinet media conference on Tuesday, Cabinet Spokesman Gunawardena informed reporters that the former president was not in hiding and will return from Singapore.
Gunawardena, who is also the Minister of Transport and Highways and the Minister of Mass Media, stated that he does not believe the former president fled the country or is in hiding.
He did not, however, provide any other information about Rajapaksa’s likely return.
Sri Lanka’s Parliament elected Rajapaksa ally Ranil Wickremesinghe as his successor on Wednesday. Rajapaksa resigned after arriving in Singapore. Sri Lanka’s Parliament directly chose a president for the first time in 44 years.
Rajapaksa, 73, departed Sri Lanka following the July 9 rebellion in which protesters burst into the President’s House following months of public protests against him for mismanaging the country’s worst economic crisis since 1948.
(With Inputs From PTI)