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Sri Lanka’s controversial President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has tried to leave the country and go to Dubai. But airport staff refused to help the president and halted his trip, sources with transparency said on Tuesday.
Staff at the international airport in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo refused to go to the VIP area to stamp the president’s passport, according to official sources. The president himself must have refused to walk through the public spaces for fear of other travelers.
The 73-year-old Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled his official residence in the capital Colombo on Saturday, just before thousands of people demanding his resignation stormed the building.
The president has promised to resign on Wednesday to allow for a “peaceful transfer of power” after the widespread protests against him that have come as a result of the economic crisis in the country. As long as he is president, Rajapaksa enjoys immunity and cannot be arrested. Therefore, he is believed to want to leave the country before leaving.
The president and his wife are said to have spent the night at a military base near the international airport.
The president’s younger brother Basil, who resigned as finance minister in April, also missed his flight to Dubai on Tuesday after a similar situation.
There is no official information from the president’s office about his whereabouts.