COLOMBO (AFP) – Police said yesterday they arrested a Sri Lankan trade union leader who allegedly took two official flags from the deposed president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s palace and used them as a bedsheet and a sarong.
Tens of thousands of people, incensed by the island nation’s economic crisis, stormed Rajapaksa’s residence and seafront office earlier this month, forcing the leader to flee the country and later resign.
The man’s arrest on Friday night comes after a social media post showed him using one of the official presidential flags as a bedsheet and the other as a sarong, a police officer told AFP, on condition of anonymity.
“We identified him from the videos filmed and posted by his son,” the officer said. “He told investigators that he burnt one flag and we have recovered the one he used as a sarong.”
The man was remanded in custody for two weeks pending further investigations, the officer added.
Sri Lanka’s 22 million people have endured months of lengthy blackouts, record inflation and shortages of food, fuel and petrol.
Rajapaksa had been blamed by protesters for mismanaging the nation’s finances.
