COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A day after former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa asked a court to block his possible arrest under Sri Lanka’s anti-terrorism law, another member of the country’s once-dominant political dynasty was taken into custody.
Yoshitha Rajapaksa, the second son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was arrested on Wednesday by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption after appearing before investigators in connection with a probe into his recruitment and training in the Sri Lanka Navy.
The arrest marked the latest setback for the Rajapaksa family, whose hold on Sri Lankan politics unraveled after the economic crisis of 2022 triggered mass protests that forced Gotabaya Rajapaksa from office.
Commission officials questioned Yoshitha Rajapaksa, 38, over allegations relating to his entry into the Navy in 2006 and his subsequent foreign training. The investigation, opened under Sri Lanka’s Anti-Corruption Act, centers on long-running questions about whether normal recruitment procedures were followed when he joined the service during his father’s presidency.
Mr. Rajapaksa had initially been summoned to appear on Tuesday but informed the commission that he could not attend because he had a Court of Appeal hearing in a separate case. He appeared before investigators on Wednesday and was arrested after questioning.
The controversy over his naval career dates back nearly two decades.
Mr. Rajapaksa joined the Sri Lanka Navy as an officer cadet in 2006, when Mahinda Rajapaksa was president. He later trained at the Naval and Maritime Academy and at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Britain, and was commissioned as an acting sub-lieutenant in 2009. He also served as an aide-de-camp to his father.
Questions about his recruitment resurfaced after Mahinda Rajapaksa lost the presidency in 2015. The incoming administration directed the Navy to examine how Yoshitha Rajapaksa entered the service, how he obtained overseas training opportunities, and whether he engaged in political activity while serving as a naval officer.
In 2016, Parliament was told that more than 22 million rupees in public funds had been spent on his foreign training programs in Britain and Ukraine between 2007 and 2010. A parliamentary review also raised questions about whether his academic qualifications met the requirements then applicable to officer cadets.
His position changed again in 2019, near the end of President Maithripala Sirisena’s term, when he was reinstated in the Navy with retrospective effect. He was later promoted and appointed as an aide-de-camp to a senior naval officer. He resigned from the Navy in 2020 and became chief of staff to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, his father.
The Navy recruitment probe is not the only legal matter involving him.
In January 2016, Yoshitha Rajapaksa and several others connected to Carlton Sports Network, a television channel linked to the Rajapaksa family, were arrested in a financial crimes investigation involving allegations of money laundering. That case remains before the courts. On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal concluded hearings on a petition filed by Mr. Rajapaksa challenging a conspiracy charge in the case and said its ruling would be delivered on July 3.
The timing of Wednesday’s arrest drew attention because it came a day after Gotabaya Rajapaksa filed a petition in the Court of Appeal seeking an order preventing his arrest under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in connection with investigations related to the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks.
The two developments have placed renewed focus on the Rajapaksas, who for years occupied the commanding heights of Sri Lanka’s state. Family members held the presidency, the premiership, cabinet ministries, and influential positions in government, especially after the military defeat of the Tamil Tigers in 2009.
That dominance has since faded sharply. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced from office in 2022 after protesters blamed his government for the country’s economic collapse. Mahinda Rajapaksa has largely withdrawn from frontline politics. His eldest son, Namal Rajapaksa, now leads a weakened Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna.
Once among the most powerful families in Asia, the Rajapaksas are now increasingly confronting the institutions they once controlled.
