The United National Party (UNP) has challenged the Criminal Investigation Department’s methodology in its probe of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s September 2023 United Kingdom visit, arguing that evidence should have been sought from British authorities and the host institution rather than from Sri Lanka’s London High Commission, Newswire reported.
Speaking at a UNP event, party officials said any record relating to expenses or scheduling of Wickremesinghe’s trip should have been obtained from the British Government or the University of Wolverhampton — which hosted the visit during which Wickremesinghe’s wife, Professor Maithree Wickramasinghe, received an honorary professorship. The former President did not visit the Sri Lankan High Commission in London during the trip, the UNP said, calling the investigation’s choice of evidentiary source a procedural misstep.
The party also questioned the decision to dispatch five CID officers to the United Kingdom to gather evidence and said a Right to Information request seeking disclosure of investigation costs, filed more than five months ago, remains unanswered. It demanded transparency on both the expenditure incurred on the foreign mission and the basis on which evidence is being assembled.
The CID and the Attorney General’s Department have alleged that the trip — which was funded from the public purse — was presented as an official state visit despite being a private engagement linked to Wickramasinghe’s honorary award, with no tangible benefit to Sri Lanka and a consequent misuse of public funds. The Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court has already issued indictments tied to the visit and the CID’s investigation tracks intersect with the UK Mutual Legal Assistance request issued in early May for documentary evidence from Wolverhampton and the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
The UNP’s framing aligns with the line set out by Wickremesinghe’s defence team in the Public Property Act court proceedings, which has consistently argued that the trip’s scheduling, hospitality and academic purpose are matters for the British side to confirm — not records that the Sri Lankan High Commission could plausibly hold. The party’s RTI request, if eventually fulfilled, would also reveal the operational and travel costs of the CID’s UK mission, a figure that opposition voices have flagged as a potential accountability point on the investigation itself.
