Old Sri Lankan protest visuals misrepresented as recent rally by ex-president's supporters
- Published on September 4, 2025 at 03:47
- 5 min read
- By Harshana SILVA, AFP Sri Lanka
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"The public are appreciative of Ranil, who rebuilt the country, and are gathered in Colombo to support him," reads a Sinhala-language Facebook post shared on August 26, 2025.
The accompanying image shows a crowd standing in the street raising their fists.
Two other photos and one video of packed streets also surfaced in Facebook posts on the same day, claiming they showed Wickremesinghe's supporters protesting his arrest.
The posts were shared on the same day the former leader -- who took office in July 2022 following months-long protests fuelled by Sri Lanka's economic crisis -- was granted bail after being arrested on charges of misusing state funds (archived link).
He was accused of spending US$55,000 in government funds on a 2023 stopover in Britain while returning from attending the G77 summit in Havana and the UN General Assembly in New York, but Wickremesinghe maintains no state funds were misused.
Anti-graft units have ramped up investigations since his successor, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, came to power on a promise to fight endemic corruption in the island nation, which is emerging from its worst economic meltdown in 2022.
A few hundred protesters had gathered outside the court building on August 26 in support of Wickremesinghe, and were met by riot police who held back the crowd.
Other Facebook posts linked the images of crowds to the bail hearing, but all of the visuals predate the former leader's arrest.
A reverse image search on Google led to the first image on Wickremesinghe's official X account, which was uploaded on October 30, 2018, days after he was sacked as prime minister (archived link).
"The people have spoken. Summon Parliament. Restore democracy now," his post reads.
AFP reported tens of thousands of people rallied that day to protest his removal by then-president Maithripala Sirisena over disagreements about economic policy and other administrative matters, in a move that was criticised for being unconstitutional and illegal (archived link).
Further reverse image searches found the remaining images and video are all linked to 2022 protests over Sri Lanka's worst ever economic crisis.
The second photo was shared on the Facebook page of local photographer Thilina Kaluthotage on April 9, 2022, who told AFP he had taken it (archived link).
It was shared alongside other photos in a post about protests at Galle Face in Colombo demanding the resignation of the president.
Demonstrators set up an encampment to support their struggle against the government at the Galle Face seafront promenade in the capital, occupying the area for months until a crackdown against protest leaders in October 2022 forced them to clear out (archived link).
The third photo has circulated in news reports since July 9, 2022, when tens of thousands of protesters poured into Colombo and overran Gotabaya Rajapaksa's presidential palace, forcing him to flee and eventually resign (archived link).
The scene corresponds to photos of protesters storming the presidential secretariat building published on July 9 by US broadcaster CNN and British photo agency Alamy (archived here and here).
The last video corresponds to a clip published by Indian news channel WION on its official Facebook page on July 9, 2022 (archived link).
"Sri Lanka: In one of the largest anti-government demonstrations in the troubled country this year, tens of thousands of protesters broke through police barricades to attack the president's official residence," the post reads.
The New Indian Express newspaper also published similar footage of the protesters entering the presidential compound (archived link).
AFP has debunked other false claims about Wickremesinghe here and here.
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