Sri Lankan president's youngest brother dies after ax attack


1 photo
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena's youngest brother has died two days after he was attacked with an ax in what authorities said was a personal dispute.

Priyantha Sirisena, 42, died in a private hospital in Colombo on Saturday after he was airlifted from his hometown of Polonnaruwa in North-Central province following the attack on Thursday, a government statement said.

The attacker has surrendered to police. The statement did not say what the dispute was about.

Priyantha Sirisena was the youngest of the president's 11 siblings. He was involved in sand mining and owned a rice milling business.

Unlike his predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose brothers and other family members held top government positions, Sirisena has kept his family out of politics and has not given them state protection.

Sirisena was in China on a four-day official visit when the attack took place. He is expected to return Sunday night and attend his brother's funeral on Monday.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Photos

Most recent World stories

Related topics

World
The Associated Press

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast