Sri Lankan critics fear a crackdown is underway, and some flee

Fears of a potential crackdown on critics of the newly returned Rajapaksa political dynasty in Sri Lanka are rising just days after the election, as officials and journalists who investigated the Rajapaksas for human rights abuses and corruption began trying to flee the country, officials said.

In a case that raised particular alarm, a Sri Lankan employee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo was abducted Monday by unidentified men who forced her to unlock her mobile phone data to them, diplomatic officials said. The officials said her phone contained information about Sri Lankans who have recently sought asylum in Switzerland and the names of Sri Lankans who aided them as they fled the country because they feared for their safety after Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the presidency in elections this month.

On the same day, Rajapaksa imposed a blanket travel ban on more than 700 members of the Sri Lankan police unit that had been investigating the family. And other police officers raided a news outlet critical of the Rajapaksas and forced several journalists to hand their computers over for analysis, in what the police said was an investigation into accusations of hate speech.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Rajapaksa said that “defence authorities have decided to look into those allegations to ascertain the truth,” when asked about the abduction of the Swiss Embassy employee. More broadly, government officials said there was no intent to quash investigations of the Rajapaksas.

In the abduction case, the diplomatic officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said the men held the embassy employee for several hours and then, before releasing her, threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

The officials said the men appeared to be focused on finding information about a Sri Lankan detective who had been investigating Rajapaksa. The detective fled to Switzerland with his family Sunday.

It was not clear whether the men were connected to Rajapaksa or were acting of their own as supporters of the popular leader and his political dynasty.

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister was scheduled to meet the Swiss ambassador Wednesday to answer questions about the abduction and provide assurances for the safety of embassy staff, officials said.

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