• Udayanga slams GR and names ex-SLAF Commander as second respondent
• Udayanga Weeratunga denies signing agreements when questioned by CID
• Claims Gota to return on 24 August

Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Russia Udayanga Weeratunga said yesterday (17) that if a case is filed in High Court regarding the controversial MiG aircraft deal of 2006, ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would be the first respondent in the case in his capacity as the former Secretary of Defence. Weeratunga was summoned to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday to record a statement with regard to the purchase of four MiG 27 aircrafts to Sri Lanka from Ukraine in 2006, when Rajapaksa served as the Secretary to the Defence Ministry. “They have charged me and made me a suspect. If they are so confident, then why are they not filing a case against me in the High Court? If a case is filed, the first respondent or suspect will be Rajapaksa and the next will be the former Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Commander Air Marshal Donald Perera. I didn't approve the agreements. I didn't sign them. I didn't pilot the planes. Where are the people who approved them? They are putting it on my back and they are living free,” claimed Weeratunga while speaking to media outside the CID. He said that the CID will likely continue to summon him for statements now, adding that he already gave 10 days worth of statements when he was in prison. Weeratunga was arrested in February 2020, after which he was extradited to Sri Lanka from Dubai, UAE, four years after the Colombo Magistrate’s Court issued a red notice against him, seeking Interpol assistance to arrest him. Although he was arrested in Dubai in 2018 as well, he was released despite efforts by the Sri Lankan authorities to have him deported. “There are many like me who faced political revenge. Rajapaksa did not provide any of us with justice. Rajapaksa forgot the beginning. He forgot his sibling,” said Weeratunga, referring to former President and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Gotabaya Rajapaksa is currently residing in Thailand, having flown there from Singapore, after he fled to the Maldives in July, in the face of a massive public uprising in Sri Lanka demanding his resignation. “I hope he will come back soon though and that the people of Sri Lanka will not take revenge on him. He should come back as he has done a service to the country, but he had to leave due to the henchmen around him,” said Weeratunga. Weeratunga further claimed that Rajapaksa is due to return to Sri Lanka on 24 August. “Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is not at all similar to Gotabaya Rajapaksa. That is where we went wrong. Gotabaya Rajapaksa will come back on 24 August. He will do a service. But our people need not be stupid again to make him a politician. He is not capable as a politician, he is capable only as an official,” said Weeratunga. Reports show that although Air Marshal Perera wanted to call for an open tender to procure the MiG 27 aircrafts in January 2006, Weeratunga accompanied certain Ukrainian and Singaporean businessmen who met with then-Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, after which it was decided to buy the aircrafts from Ukrinmash – the Ukrainian company. Subsequently, Weeratunga was appointed as the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Russia and Ukraine in June 2006. Reportedly, although it was stated that Ukrinmash was owned by the Ukrainian Government and that the deal was a Government to Government one, as per the contract between the SLAF and Ukrinmash, over $ 14 million was paid to a private company in the UK, known as Bellimissa Holdings Ltd. In 2021, Weeratunga also controversially played a crucial role in bringing down tourists from the Ukraine, even though health officials raised several concerns about opening up the country again during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.