Sri Lankan: President Gotabaya Rajapaksa flees the country amid protests; Lands in Maldives

Colombo: Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has left the country, according to a high-ranking security official. Rajapaksa and his wife flew to Malé, in the Maldives, on an AN32 troop transport plane from the Sri Lanka Air Force.

The embattled Rajapaksa was previously blocked from departing Sri Lanka at least twice on Monday, after refusing to join a public immigration queue at the Bandaranaike International Airport. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been accused of high-level corruption and economic mismanagement, which ultimately bankrupted the country and triggered its worst financial crisis since independence.