Former minister Mangala Samaraweera passes away

Former Minister Mangala Samaraweera has passed away this afternoon (Tuesday) while being treated for COVID-19 infection at a private hospital in Colombo.

The 65-year-old Samaraweera contracted the virus earlier this month and was receiving intensive care unit (ICU) treatment at the Lanka Hospital, despite being fully vaccinated

Mangala Pinsiri Samaraweera, born in 1956, was a veteran politician who served under several governments and had held many top offices during his political life.

He had served as the Minister of Finance from 2017 to 2019 and as the Minister of Foreign Affairs for two terms from 2005 to 2007 and 2015 to 2017.

When unconfirmed reports surfaced last week that Samaraweera passed, sources close to him said he was in fact on the mend and was responding well to treatment.

Samaraweera had held key portfolios in the cabinets of former presidents Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena.

An outspoken politician hailing from the Matara district, Samaraweera left parliamentary politics in 2020, focusing his abilities on forming a broader alliance of like-minded, independent liberal thinkers.

Most recently, he made headlines for his remark at the launch of a new movement named True Patriots that the main opposition Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) and the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) are two sides of the same coin.