CID to probe NYT report on Chinese company funding ex-Prez's poll campaign, says Lanka PM

The Sri Lankan police will probe the allegations in a New York Times report which claimed that a Chinese state-owned company had funded former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2015, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said.

The NYT report published on June 26 alleged that Rajapaksa's campaign took USD 7.6 million in bribe from the the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) which built the controversial Hambantota port on the island.

Wickremesinghe told parliament yesterday that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) will probe the allegations made by the NYT report following a complaint lodged by Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake.

He further said that necessary action would be taken after the investigations were concluded.

The Rajapaksa camp has denied the allegation and accused the NYT of carrying out politically motivated falsehoods on Sri Lankan government's bidding.

The NYT on Tuesday had also claimed that two of its correspondents in Sri Lanka were threatened by the loyalists of Rajapaksa after it published the investigative report.

Meanwhile, terming it as "completely inconsistent with the facts", the CHEC today refuted the NYT report and said the construction of the Hambantota Port was an important national task based on mutual agreement between the Sri Lanka and China governments, and was implemented under a transparent model.

CHEC has never been involved in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka. The Hambantota Port was built for the Sri Lankan Government and its people...The relevant media report has distorted the facts and provided a false opinion, CHEC Joint Managing Director An Xin told reporters here.

She further said, "We will give any kind of cooperation to the Sri Lankan authorities in any kind of investigation according to the law.