COLOMBO: Police reported Saturday that they had detained a trade union leader from Sri Lanka who was accused of stealing two official flags from the palace of the ousted president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa and using them as a bedsheet and sarong.
Rajapaksa was forced to flee the country and eventually resign after tens of thousands of angry citizens stormed his home and office on the seafront earlier this month.
On condition of anonymity, a police officer spoke to AFP about the man’s arrest on Friday night in response to a social media post that showed him using one of the official presidential flags as a bedsheet and the other as a sarong.
The videos that his son recorded and uploaded helped us identify him, the officer said.
He admitted to burning one flag, and we have found the one he was wearing as a sarong, according to the investigators.
The officer continued, “The man was remanded in custody for two weeks pending further investigations.”
The 22 million residents of Sri Lanka have endured months-long blackouts, record inflation, and shortages of food, fuel, and gasoline.
Before the large-scale protests that led to Rajapaksa’s overthrow, the public had been angry for months over his alleged mismanagement of the country’s finances.
Social media posts of protesters splashing around in the presidential pool and jumping on four-poster beds inside the expansive compound surfaced shortly after they overran the Presidential Palace.
On the same day, protesters also overran the nearby Temple Trees compound, the official prime minister’s residence, and took televisions and other valuables with them.
According to the police, an inventory was being taken at the colonial-era structures, which house priceless works of art and artifacts.
However, protesters also handed over to law enforcement approximately 17.5 million rupees ($46,000) in clean banknotes that were discovered in a room of the presidential palace.
Ranil Wickremesinghe, Rajapaksa’s successor, has vowed to take a tough stance against “trouble-makers,” and police have recently detained a number of protest leaders.
This week, the state of emergency was extended by Parliament, giving the military broad authority to uphold the peace and hold suspects for extended periods of time.
A protest camp outside the president’s office that had advocated for Rajapaksa’s removal was destroyed by the military last week, prompting international outrage over the use of excessive force by the military against unarmed protesters.
