Colombo’s Fort Magistrate’s Court delivered its latest ruling in one of Sri Lanka’s most closely watched corruption sagas this week, ordering Member of Parliament Namal Rajapaksa — son of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and a leading figure in the opposition Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna — to remain in remand custody until September 23, 2026, as a sprawling money-laundering investigation tied to a controversial 2013 Airbus aircraft purchase continues to unfold.

The ruling, issued by Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena, came after prosecutors from the Criminal Investigation Department, appearing on instructions from the Attorney General, laid out an intricate international money trail they allege connects Rajapaksa to the long-running scandal. The case centers on SriLankan Airlines’ procurement of a fleet of wide-body Airbus aircraft over a decade ago, a transaction that has generated a slow-motion legal reckoning implicating a widening circle of Sri Lankan political and business figures ever since.

According to the prosecution’s account, presented in court by Deputy Solicitor General Janaka Bandara, Airbus paid approximately EUR 1.454 million — a figure the country’s anti-corruption commission had previously specified with precision as EUR 1,454,651.24 — into a Standard Chartered Bank account in Singapore held by a company called Biz Solutions Inc., which investigators have linked to Priyanka Niyomali Wijenayake, wife of former SriLankan Airlines chief executive Kapila Chandrasena. From there, prosecutors allege, roughly USD 800,000 of those funds moved into a separate Singapore-based OCBC Bank account belonging to Sabre Vision Holdings, a company owned by a Sri Lankan businessman. Investigators contend that businessman subsequently funneled a total of Rs. 100 million in cash to Rajapaksa across several separate occasions.

The case’s roots stretch back well before this week’s court appearance. Rajapaksa was first arrested on September 4 by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, known by its acronym CIABOC, after nearly five hours of questioning specifically regarding the alleged Rs. 100 million bribe connected to the Airbus deal. Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama ordered him remanded until September 18 in that initial proceeding. But the legal exposure widened considerably in the days that followed: on September 14, the Attorney General’s office, through Additional Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris, informed the court that the Criminal Investigation Department had filed a separate motion naming Rajapaksa as a suspect specifically in a money-laundering case connected to the same underlying Airbus transaction — a parallel legal track that culminated in Wednesday’s Fort Magistrate’s Court appearance and the extended remand order running through September 23.

The broader scandal surrounding SriLankan Airlines’ Airbus procurement has already claimed one life under deeply unsettling circumstances. Kapila Chandrasena, the former airline chief executive at the center of the original bribery allegations, was arrested back on March 12 and initially remanded before later being released on bail. While free on bail, Chandrasena was found dead on May 8 under what police described as mysterious circumstances, with investigators suspecting suicide — a development that added a somber, unresolved undertone to a case that continues to expand in scope and cast a widening net of suspects. His wife, Priyanka Niyomali Wijenayake, named as a second suspect in the case, remains the subject of an open arrest warrant, as does Shamindra Rajapaksa, a third named suspect before the Fort Magistrate’s Court.

International dimensions of the case have also surfaced in recent weeks. A delegation from Airbus’s parent company in France reportedly visited Sri Lanka during the first week of August, presumably in connection with the ongoing investigation, underscoring the cross-border complexity of a case that spans European aircraft manufacturing, Singaporean banking infrastructure, and Sri Lankan domestic politics all at once.

For Rajapaksa specifically, the case carries obvious political weight well beyond its legal stakes. As National Organiser of the SLPP and a prominent figure in a political dynasty that has dominated — and periodically convulsed — Sri Lankan politics for decades, his prolonged detention represents a significant blow to a party still working to rebuild its standing after the economic and political crises that battered Sri Lanka in recent years. His legal team, led by President’s Counsel Anil Silva, has continued to contest the proceedings, with the court’s decision on his bail application now set to be delivered alongside the next scheduled hearing on September 23 — a date that will determine whether Rajapaksa remains behind bars as the broader investigation into Sri Lanka’s most notorious aviation procurement scandal continues to widen.