{"id":1591201,"date":"2022-08-05T14:55:45","date_gmt":"2022-08-05T18:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1591201"},"modified":"2022-08-05T14:55:49","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T18:55:49","slug":"fact-check-does-this-photo-show-sri-lankan-ex-president-gotabaya-rajapaksa-on-a-flight-to-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-does-this-photo-show-sri-lankan-ex-president-gotabaya-rajapaksa-on-a-flight-to-singapore\/","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECK: Does This Photo Show Sri Lankan Ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa On A Flight To Singapore?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffact-check-does-this-photo-show-sri-lankan-ex-president-gotabaya-rajapaksa-on-a-flight-to-singapore%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1591201&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/2022-07-24T093638Z_173374813_RC28IV9DLYS2_RTRMADP_3_SRI-LANKA-CRISIS-RAJAPAKSA-scaled-e1659636637577.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>A photo <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo\/?fbid=1146012375981786&#038;set=a.101175730465461\"><span>shared on Facebook<\/span><\/a><span> purportedly shows Sri Lankan ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa on a flight from the Maldives to Singapore following his resignation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><b>Verdict: False<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The photo was taken in 2016 and shows Rajapaksa on a plane heading for Japan, not Singapore.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Fact Check:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Rajapaksa resigned as Sri Lankan president on July 14 and fled the country after a series of anti-government protests, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/07\/14\/asia\/sri-lanka-gotabaya-rajapksa-thursday-intl-hnk\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CNN<\/a>. The country\u2019s government has since cracked down on protesters who participated in the demonstrations that led to the ex-president\u2019s resignation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/08\/03\/world\/asia\/sri-lanka-protest-crackdown.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The New York Times<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>An image shared on Facebook claims to show Rajapaksa and some of his attendants on a flight from the Maldives to Singapore following his departure from office. \u201cSri Lankan president in exile Gotapaya Rajapaksha (sic) seen in the flight to singapore from Maldives,\u201d reads the image\u2019s caption.<\/p>\n<p><span>However, the image predates the current crisis in Sri Lanka. A reverse image search reveals it was originally posted to <\/span><span>Rajapaksa\u2019s verified <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gotabayar\/posts\/717231955108789\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><span> account in 2016 during a trip to Japan. \u201cOn way to #Nagoya with breathtaking view of Mount Fuji. Look forward to meeting Sri Lankan community in the evening \u2013 GR,\u201d the post\u2019s caption reads. <b><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The photo can also be seen in a 2016 article published by the Sri Lankan news outlet the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-coming-nationalist-juggernaut-2020\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Colombo Telegraph<\/a>. <span><a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2022\/04\/26\/fact-check-rajapaksa-sri-lanka-time-magazine\/\"><b>(RELATED: Did Time Magazine Feature Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa On Its Cover?)<\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is not the first time misinformation about Rajapaksa has gone viral. Check Your Fact previously <a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2022\/04\/26\/fact-check-rajapaksa-sri-lanka-time-magazine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">debunked<\/a> a photo from April 2022 that allegedly showed a cover of Time Magazine featuring Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A photo shared on Facebook purportedly shows Sri Lankan ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa on a flight from the Maldives to Singapore following his resignation.\u00a0Verdict: False The photo was taken in 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":613,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1591201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/613"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1591201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1591201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1591201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1591201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}