Plane carrying Sri Lankan president lands in Singapore

By : AFP

Date: 14 July 2022 1:12pm WAT

SINGAPORE-MALDIVES-SRI LANKA-POLITICS-ECONOMY-UNREST

A Saudia airline Boeing 787 Dreamliner believed to be carrying Sri Lanka's president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards arrives at Changi International Airport in Singapore on July 14, 2022. - Sri Lanka's president left the Maldives on July 14 aboard a Saudia airline plane bound for Singapore, an airport official told AFP, a day after he escaped to the atoll nation. (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP)

A plane carrying Sri Lanka’s president arrived in Singapore from the Maldives Thursday, according to AFP reporters, a day after he escaped to the atoll nation.
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Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his wife Ioma and their two bodyguards were on board the Saudia airline plane, an airport official earlier told AFP.

The aircraft landed at Singapore’s Changi Airport at 7:17 pm (1117 GMT), according to AFP journalists on site.

Journalists had descended on Changi after news emerged that the president was heading to the city-state.

Rajapaksa, 73, fled Sri Lanka after protesters overran his palace on the weekend as the country grapples with a dire economic crisis.

He is expected to look to stay in the city-state for some time, according to Sri Lankan security sources, before potentially moving to the United Arab Emirates.

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