Former Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled amid unrest, returns home

Rajapaksa was festooned with flowers by a welcoming party of ministers and politicians as he disembarked at the main international airport, in a sign of his enduring influence in the Indian Ocean nation critics say he led to ruin.

Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksha returned to the country on Friday seven weeks after he fled amid the island's worst-ever economic crisis.

Rajapaksa was festooned with flowers by a welcoming party of ministers and politicians as he disembarked at the main international airport, in a sign of his enduring influence in the Indian Ocean nation critics say he led to ruin.

Speaking to reporters, an official said, "There was a rush of government politicians to garland him as he came out of the aircraft."

In mid-July, Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka under military escort after unarmed crowds stormed his official residence, following months of angry demonstrations blaming him for the nation's unprecedented economic crisis.

Rajapaksa sent in his resignation from Singapore before flying on to Thailand, from where he had petitioned his successor Ranil Wickremesinghe to facilitate his return.

The 73-year-old leader arrived from Bangkok via Singapore on a commercial flight, ending his 52-day self-imposed exile. Opposition politicians have accused Wickremesinghe of shielding the once-powerful Rajapaksa family.

Sri Lanka's constitution guarantees bodyguards, a vehicle and housing for former presidents, including Gotabaya and his elder brother and fellow ex-president Mahinda.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation ended his presidential immunity, and rights activists said they would press for his arrest on multiple charges, including his alleged role in the 2009 assassination of prominent newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunge.

Rajapaksa also faces charges in a court in the US state of California over Wickrematunge's murder and the torture of Tamil prisoners at the end of the island's traumatic civil war in 2009.