{"id":135054,"date":"2014-12-18T02:25:02","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T20:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=135054"},"modified":"2014-12-23T17:42:25","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T12:12:25","slug":"mr-defends-his-sons-private-choppers-and-royal-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mr-defends-his-sons-private-choppers-and-royal-horses\/","title":{"rendered":"MR Defends His Sons&#8217; Private Choppers And Royal Horses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An irked President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=9&amp;y=5\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> fiercely defended his sons&#8217; private choppers and royal horses, adding that people who live in glass houses shouldn&#8217;t throw stones at others.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Rohitha-Rajapaksa1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-135055\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Rohitha-Rajapaksa1.jpg\" alt=\"Rohitha Rajapaksa\" width=\"265\" height=\"190\" \/><\/a>Addressing a rally in Chilaw, President Rajapaksa seemed extremely upset as he spoke about the comments made by the Opposition about the luxurious lifestyles led by the Rajapaksa sons to which included details of their private helicopters and a specially imported horse from the Royal mews of the Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They (the opposition) are defaming us. . .They seem to be extremely concerned about the helicopters I bought for my children and the horses. I would much rather my sons grew a liking to horse riding than for attempting to ride a DIG&#8217;s wife in Pasikudah,&#8221; he said in clear reference to assault allegations that were leveled at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/minister-maithripala-sirisenas-son-brandished-a-gun-at-unp-kris-balathazaar\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Maithripala Sirisena&#8217;s son<\/span><\/a> few yes ago.<\/p>\n<p>Despite claiming he is not one to sling mud at his opponents President Rajapaksa continued to say, &#8220;If I had such sons, I would be in deep trouble. . .&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, speaking at a gathering of lawyers he rejected allegations of his regime interfering with the judiciary.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have never interfered with the judiciary at any point. There is no Court in Sri Lanka that dances according to my tunes. We have never protected perpetrators of crimes,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Related stories;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/minister-maithripala-sirisenas-son-brandished-a-gun-at-unp-kris-balathazaar\/\">Minister Maithripala Sirisena\u2019s Son Brandished A Gun At UNP Kris Balathazaar<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/opposition-is-referring-to-our-toy-helicopters-namal\/\">Opposition Is Referring To Our Toy Helicopters: Namal<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/buckingham-stables-horses-and-private-choppers-for-rajapaksas\/\">Buckingham Stables Horses And Private Choppers For Rajapaksas<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":135055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MR Defends His Sons&#039; 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