{"id":43788,"date":"2015-05-15T07:27:39","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T13:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=43788"},"modified":"2015-05-14T23:34:47","modified_gmt":"2015-05-15T06:34:47","slug":"dubai-marriot-hotel-is-not-mine-mahinda-rajapaksa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/05\/15\/dubai-marriot-hotel-is-not-mine-mahinda-rajapaksa\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubai Marriot Hotel is not mine – Mahinda Rajapaksa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa today rejected allegations that he invested millions of dollars in the Steel Corporation the Marriot Hotel in Dubai by using businessman Nandana Lokuwithana as a front man.<\/p>\n

The Marriott Al Jaddaf Hotel in Dubai is the first ever five star hotel built and owned by a Sri Lankan living overseas.<\/p>\n

The owner of the property, Lokuwithana, had reportedly invested US$ 225 million (approximately Rs. 2.9 billion) for the project.<\/p>\n

Issuing a statement, Rajapaksa also charged that the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) has been set up with a view to harassing political opponents\u201d and that it functions as an extension\u201d of the UNP.<\/p>\n

The statement further reads: The newly set up police unit, the FCID has filed a B report informing the Kaduwela Magistrate\u2019s Court that they have begun investigations into a complaint that a sum totalling USD 48 million invested in the Steel Corporation and a sum of USD 190 million invested in the Marriot hotel in Dubai actually belongs to me and that the owner of these properties Nandana Lokuwithana is only a front man.<\/p>\n

The B report states that the FCID had commenced this investigation on the basis of an anonymous letter which had been referred to them. The FCID has been set up with a view to harassing political opponents and the legality and propriety of the establishment of this unit is already before the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

It is very unusual for the police to report to courts that they are carrying out an investigation on the basis of an anonymous letter.<\/p>\n

The FCID which functions as an extension of the UNP may have filed this B report to convey to the public the false impression that there is a \u2018court case\u2019 relating to concealed assets owned by me.<\/p>\n

With a parliamentary election in the offing, it would be useful for my opponents to spread such a perception among the public. This is yet another clever and insidious way of carrying out false propaganda against me.<\/p>\n

I wish to inform the public that the Steel Corporation and the Dubai Marriot hotel belong to whoever owns them and not to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Adaderana Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa today rejected allegations that he invested millions of dollars in the Steel Corporation the Marriot Hotel in Dubai by using businessman Nandana Lokuwithana as a front man. The Marriott Al Jaddaf Hotel in Dubai is the first ever five star hotel built and owned by a Sri Lankan living […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}