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  • 2022-01-19 (xsd:date)
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  • Old photo of ex-Sri Lankan minister circulates in misleading posts after he was sacked (en)
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  • A photo of a former Sri Lankan minister has been shared hundreds of times in Facebook posts that claim it shows him cosying up to the brother of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa hours after he was sacked in January 2022. The photo has been shared in a misleading context: it has circulated online since at least 2019. Wednesday, the fifth of January 2022... Susil Premajayantha [cosying up] with Basil [Rajapaska]... Last night, reads a Sinhala-language Facebook post. The president and his brother Basil are both are members of the eponymous clan that holds sway over the island's politics . The post has been shared more than 280 times since it was published on January 5, 2022. The photo shows four men sitting around a table: (from left to right) Susil Premajayantha , former minister for education reforms; Gamini Lokuge , minister of power; Basil Rajapaksa , minister of finance; and Nimal Lanza , state minister of rural roads. Premajayantha was sacked on January 4, 2022 after he allegedly criticised the Sri Lankan government's agricultural policies. Screenshot of the Facebook post captured on January 18, 2022 ( Lakna PARANAMANNA) The same photo was shared alongside a similar claim in Facebook posts here and here . Comments from some social media users on the posts indicated they believed the image was taken after Premajayantha was sacked. One comment reads: I knew he didn't have the guts to openly criticise his leaders and face the repercussions. Another reads: These are all underhand deals -- the critical comments and [his] removal are all part of a [staged] drama. However, the photo has been shared in a misleading context. It has circulated online since at least October 2019 -- more than two years before Premajayantha was sacked. A Google reverse image search found the picture shared in various Facebook posts in October 2019 -- including here and here . One of the posts reads in Sinhala: Basil, Susil, Lokuge and Lanza during a discussion on the Mathata Thitha campaign. Mathata Thitha -- which translates as [Putting] a stop to intoxication -- was a campaign launched in 2006 by the Mahinda Rajapaksa-led government in a bid to reduce the public's alcohol consumption. Premajayantha said the photo was taken in 2014 -- although AFP was not able to independently verify this. He told AFP: The image was captured during an event in 2014. I was then the general secretary of the United People's Freedom Alliance, and Basil Rajapaksa was the national organiser for the Sri Lanka Freedom Party . The United People's Freedom Alliance was an electoral alliance founded by former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge in 2004. It was led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. The alliance ended in 2016 after some of its members joined Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa -- brother of Basil and Gotabaya Rajapaksa -- to form the political party Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna . (en)
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