Sri Lanka jails ex-minister

COLOMBO: An outspoken Sri Lankan opposition politician was jailed on Tuesday for four years over his remarks alleging the majority of judges in the South Asian nation were corrupt.

Ranjan Ramanayake, a deputy minister of the United National Party before it was voted out in 2019, claimed he was being targeted for speaking out against corruption. The 57-year-old was sentenced to "rigorous imprisonment" by the Supreme Court for making the remarks in 2017 to reporters outside the prime minister’s official residence in Colombo.

"He admitted in his evidence that he said the following words: ‘Majority in Sri Lanka are corrupted judges, corrupted lawyers. They work for money’," said the ruling, which was unanimous.