NEPALYST

Namal Rajapaksa Arrested Over 2013 Airbus Deal Kickback

[Friday,September,04] • By Nepalyst

A long-running corruption probe into Sri Lanka's aviation sector has reached one of the country's most prominent political families. Namal Rajapaksa, the 40-year-old son of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, was taken into custody and remanded until September 18 after being questioned for more than five hours by the island nation's anti-graft authority.

Hours of Questioning End in Custody

Sri Lanka's Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, known as CIABOC, arrested the lawmaker on September 4, 2026, following an extensive interrogation session. Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama subsequently denied bail, ordering that Rajapaksa remain in detention while the investigation continues.

The move represents one of the most significant legal actions yet taken against a member of the Rajapaksa family, a dynasty that has dominated Sri Lankan politics for much of the past two decades.

What Investigators Are Alleging

At the center of the case is a claim that Rajapaksa received an illegal kickback of $800,000 connected to a 2013 aircraft procurement deal. According to investigators, the funds were allegedly funneled to him through two bank accounts based in Singapore.

The transaction in question involved a multi-million-dollar agreement to purchase wide-body Airbus aircraft for national carrier SriLankan Airlines, struck during his father Mahinda Rajapaksa's presidency between 2005 and 2015. A later government ultimately scrapped the deal in 2016, but by then the debt-laden airline had already been left with close to $2 billion in accumulated losses.

Part of a Larger International Bribery Case

The charges against Rajapaksa are not happening in isolation. Sri Lanka's domestic case draws heavily on an earlier joint investigation carried out by authorities in the United States, Britain, and France, which found that Airbus had agreed to pay a total of $16 million in bribes to influence Sri Lankan officials.

That broader international probe led to a historic outcome in 2020, when Airbus agreed to pay a $4 billion global settlement to resolve corruption allegations spanning multiple countries. Sri Lanka's current case against Rajapaksa is effectively a domestic follow-up to that international reckoning.

Alleged kickback amount: $800,000, routed through Singapore-based accounts
Original deal: multi-million-dollar Airbus wide-body aircraft purchase for SriLankan Airlines
Deal scrapped in 2016, leaving the airline with nearly $2 billion in losses
Global Airbus bribery settlement: $4 billion, paid in 2020

A Case Complicated by a Missing Star Witness

Prosecutors face a significant setback in building their case: the death of former SriLankan Airlines CEO Kapila Chandrasena, widely regarded as the investigation's most crucial witness. Chandrasena had reportedly confessed to investigators that he had routed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Rajapaksa family, but he was found dead at a relative's home in May, shortly before he was due to be re-arrested. The forensic cause of his death remains undetermined.

Rajapaksa and his legal team have firmly denied any wrongdoing in the case. His party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, has gone further, publicly describing the investigation as a politically motivated campaign orchestrated by the current government to target its opponents.

The bottom line: The arrest of Namal Rajapaksa marks a pivotal moment in Sri Lanka's long-running effort to hold powerful political figures accountable for corruption. With the case's key witness now dead and the opposition framing the probe as politically motivated, the coming weeks in court are likely to be closely watched both at home and abroad.