By LeN Political Editor
(Lanka-e-News -06.Nov.2025, 11.30 PM)
It was a confession that should have made national headlines — not whispered rumours in the corridors of Colombo. Tiran Alles, a seasoned politician, former minister, and media mogul, openly admitted that he paid 180 million rupees to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
He didn’t deny it. He didn’t even disguise it. He said it was done, in his own words, to “facilitate the LTTE’s election boycott in 2005.”
That boycott changed the course of Sri Lankan history.
Because of it, hundreds of thousands of Tamil voters in the North and East — particularly in Jaffna, Kilinochchi, and Mullaitivu — were prevented or discouraged from voting. Had they voted, as polling data later suggested, the overwhelming majority would have supported Ranil Wickremesinghe.
But they didn’t. And the presidency fell, narrowly, to Mahinda Rajapaksa — a man who went on to rule Sri Lanka for a decade with his brothers, militarizing politics and transforming democracy into dynastic power.
Now, under the new National People’s Power (NPP) government, this forgotten transaction — this quiet exchange of 180 million rupees in 2005 — must face the full force of the law.
Because the truth is no longer buried.
Tiran Alles’s admission is not just a political scandal — it’s an act of terror financing under both Sri Lankan and international law.
Let’s break down what we know — and what was admitted.
In late 2005, during the heated run-up to the presidential election, Mahinda Rajapaksa was facing an uphill battle. The then-Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, had strong support from minority communities — particularly Tamil voters in the North and Muslims in the East.
According to multiple accounts and later confirmed by Alles himself, Mahinda’s camp allegedly sought to ensure that the LTTE prevented Tamil voters from casting ballots.
Why? Because a boycott in the North would mathematically favour Mahinda.
At the centre of this operation stood Tiran Alles, a businessman with deep political and media connections. Alles allegedly acted as a “messenger” or “conduit” between the Rajapaksa brothers — Mahinda and Basil — and the LTTE leadership.
In Alles’s own words, 180 million rupees were handed over to the LTTE to “ensure” that the Northern vote would not turn up for Ranil.
The results speak for themselves.
Mahinda Rajapaksa won by just 180,786 votes.
Coincidence? Hardly.
What makes this more than just a dirty political transaction is the timing and the legality.
By 2005, the LTTE was not only an enemy of the state but also a globally proscribed terrorist organization. The group had been banned under Sri Lankan law since 1998, and it was also on the terrorism lists of the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, India, and over 20 other countries.
Under both the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and international anti-terror finance laws, any payment — direct or indirect — to a banned group constitutes terrorist financing.
So let’s be clear:
If Alles paid the LTTE, and if that payment was sanctioned or funded by the Rajapaksa camp, then both parties are culpable under Sri Lankan law and international conventions to which the country is a signatory.
This is not a political issue anymore. It’s a criminal one.
To understand the gravity of this, we must remember what happened next.
The LTTE’s enforced boycott in the North effectively disenfranchised an entire ethnic group. Armed cadres blocked polling stations. Voters were threatened or simply prevented from leaving their homes.
The Northern vote share dropped by over 75%.
In contrast, Southern voter turnout — particularly in Hambantota, Galle, and Kurunegala — surged for Mahinda. The numerical difference created by the Tamil boycott was enough to tip the election.
The conclusion is simple:
Terror money manipulated the outcome of a democratic election.
This is not speculation. It is a matter of admission.
But the story doesn’t end with Tiran Alles.
He was, by his own admission, a middleman. The source of the funds, multiple insiders claim, came directly from Mahinda Rajapaksa’s campaign treasury, with logistical oversight from Basil Rajapaksa, who at that time was a U.S. citizen.
This detail adds another layer of legal complexity.
If Basil, as an American citizen, knowingly financed a payment to a designated terrorist organization, then under U.S. federal law, he would have violated multiple anti-terror statutes — notably 18 U.S.C. §2339B, which criminalizes providing “material support or resources” to a foreign terrorist group.
In simple terms, Basil could be prosecuted in the United States.
And Mahinda, as the beneficiary of that arrangement, could be held complicit in both the financing and the electoral manipulation that followed.
The NPP government, led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, now faces a defining test.
This case is not about partisan politics or revenge. It is about restoring public trust in Sri Lanka’s democracy and rule of law.
The evidence is already in the public domain:
The admission by Tiran Alles, recorded and broadcast.
The banking trails connected to the transaction, still retrievable through forensic audits.
The timeline that matches the LTTE’s sudden “boycott declaration” and Mahinda’s subsequent narrow victory.
The government has both the moral duty and the legal basis to initiate a Terror Financing Inquiry under the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the Terrorist Financing Act No. 25 of 2005, and related anti-money-laundering statutes.
Failure to act would signal that even the new administration fears the ghosts of the old regime.
While the terror-financing angle is explosive, there’s a second layer to this saga — the mystery of Tiran Alles’s overseas wealth.
International journalists have previously exposed property documents linking Alles to offshore companies registered in island tax havens, which later purchased real estate in London.
At the time, Alles dismissed the revelations as “politically motivated.” But the documents, traced through Companies House and British Virgin Islands registries, tell a different story.
Several offshore entities linked to his business associates appeared to have received fund transfers from Sri Lankan commercial banks between 2006 and 2010 — the exact period Alles was involved in multiple state-linked projects.
Investigators suspect that part of the money circulating through these channels may have originated from the same shadow funds used in the 2005 LTTE payment.
If that’s proven, the case will evolve from political scandal to international financial crime — involving money laundering, terror financing, and electoral corruption across jurisdictions.
Adding yet another dimension are new claims from two retired senior police officers, who allege that during Alles’s tenure as Minister of Internal Security, he maintained communication with Sri Lankan underworld figures operating from Dubai.
According to these officers, telephone records and intelligence intercepts from that period show frequent calls and message exchanges between Alles’s ministry aides and wanted criminals connected to drug trafficking and extortion rings.
If verified, these contacts suggest that Alles may have built a network of influence financed partly through criminal channels, some of which were also connected to LTTE-linked smuggling networks in the early 2000s.
In other words, the same ecosystem of crime and terrorism — drugs, money, politics — intersected at the desk of a sitting minister.
Sri Lankan law is unambiguous.
Under Section 3 of the Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Financing Act No. 25 of 2005, any person who “directly or indirectly provides or collects funds with the knowledge that such funds are to be used for terrorist acts” is guilty of an offence punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment and confiscation of assets.
There is no statute of limitation for such crimes.
Additionally, under Article 2(1) of the UN International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, to which Sri Lanka is a signatory, even indirect facilitation — such as providing money through intermediaries — constitutes an offence.
Therefore, Alles’s own admission already satisfies the threshold for criminal investigation.
The law does not require the act to have succeeded in causing a terrorist attack; the mere transfer of funds to a banned group with knowledge of its designation is sufficient.
By that standard, the 180 million rupees was not a “political payment.” It was terrorist financing.
The 2005 presidential election, in retrospect, was not a free and fair contest. It was an election manipulated by terror and money.
The LTTE’s enforced boycott not only changed the political map of the country but also accelerated its descent into authoritarianism.
Within months of Mahinda’s victory, independent institutions were gutted, media freedom shrank, and corruption became systemic. Billions were lost through inflated projects, commissions, and white-elephant ventures.
The seed of that corruption, many argue, was planted in 2005 — when democracy itself was purchased for 180 million rupees.
What’s most alarming is the culture of impunity surrounding figures like Alles.
Despite his admission, no investigation has been meaningfully pursued. He has continued to oscillate between political parties, serve as a minister, and own media outlets that influence public opinion.
In any other democracy, an admission of paying money to a banned terrorist group would trigger immediate arrest, asset freezes, and international inquiry. In Sri Lanka, it results in a cabinet reshuffle.
This tolerance for corruption and terrorism at the highest levels has crippled the nation’s moral compass.
If the NPP government is serious about transparency and justice, the following actions are imperative:
Appoint a Special Investigation Commission to probe the 2005 LTTE transaction, with authority to subpoena banking and communication records.
Seek international cooperation from the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to trace offshore funds linked to Alles.
Freeze suspect assets pending inquiry under the Financial Transactions Reporting Act.
Question Mahinda and Basil Rajapaksa on their alleged involvement and authorization of the payments.
Prosecute under the Terrorist Financing Act if evidence corroborates Alles’s admission.
This is not political persecution. It is the restoration of justice delayed for two decades.
Sri Lanka cannot aspire to international credibility while ignoring such crimes.
Terror financing investigations are not merely domestic concerns; they fall under international counter-terrorism obligations. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — the global watchdog — closely monitors such cases to ensure member states enforce compliance.
Failure to act could result in renewed scrutiny or even blacklisting, affecting the country’s banking and trade sectors.
Moreover, prosecuting such a case would demonstrate that Sri Lanka is finally breaking from its past — where political elites could fund terrorism for personal power and face no consequences.
The 2005 election is often remembered as the moment Sri Lanka “took a decisive turn.”
But in truth, it was the moment democracy lost and terror triumphed.
When a banned militant organization can dictate voter behaviour, and when political leaders are willing to pay for that privilege, the system ceases to be democratic — it becomes transactional.
The price tag in 2005 was 180 million rupees. The cost to the nation since then — in corruption, war, debt, and distrust — is immeasurable.
Tiran Alles’s admission is not just a personal scandal; it is a national mirror. It forces Sri Lanka to ask hard questions about complicity, silence, and selective justice.
If the NPP truly stands for a new political culture, it must begin here — with truth, accountability, and courage.
Because justice delayed is not merely justice denied.
It is democracy betrayed.
And until the truth of that 180 million rupees is fully exposed — and every hand that passed it is held to account — Sri Lanka remains hostage to its own ghosts.
By LeN Political Editor
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by (2025-11-06 19:38:38)
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