Rajapaksa Meets Alleged 'Arms Dealer' Udayanga Weeratunge In Thailand
Tuesday, 26 April 2016
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa met with former Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Russia Udayanga Weeratunge in Thailand.
They met during Rajapaksa's trip to Thailand. Prof. G.L. Peiris also accompanied Rajapaksa.
Weeratunge, a close confidant and relative of Rajapaksa, was alleged to have been linked with arms smuggling to Russian backed Ukrainian rebels. The government was said to be investigating Weeratunge in 2015. However, there were no recent developments regarding the alleged incident.
During his tenure as the Ambassador, Weeratunga got involved in several important arms deals such as procurement of MiG-27 ground attack aircraft for the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF). The transaction is currently being investigated by the Police Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID).
Fingers were also pointed at Weeratunga over the death of an individual named Noel Ranaweera, an unmarried 37 year-old translator and an assistant secretary at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Moscow, who died mysteriously in Russia, on June 11, 2014.
The former Ambassador has been living abroad since the change of government in January 2015.
