This Viral Video Misidentifies President Anura Kumara!

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Recently, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake attended the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Meanwhile, a video was shared through social media paltforms, claiming to be President Anura Kumara, in a relaxing mood. However, our investigation found that it was a case of mistaken identity; the person in the video was not the Sri Lanka president.

Social Media Posts:

A short video clip was published on social media, purportedly showing President Anura Kumara Dissanayake relaxing alongside a woman, in what appears to be an upscale hotel setting, as seen below.

Facebook

The video was posted with the English translated caption, “The farmer’s son is happy….no problem, he didn’t steal, it’s from the presidential budget……it’s from our tax money… ”

Based on the requests we received to investigate the accuracy of this, we took steps to assess the credibility of this video.

Fact Check :

Upon examining the above video, we discovered that the original video was posted by the TikTok account named Sayumi Kaitlyn Perera.

She also included a note about the video, indicating that the person in this video could be her mother, Mary Bernard.

TikTok

Many people had responded to this video, indicating that the person in the short clip was Anura Kumara Dissanayake and resembled him, which could have been the reason for this clip to be used in a misleading narrative in the first place.

The video was also published on the Instagram account of Marie Therese Bernard, who was indeed the mother of the above TikTok account owner. Marie has captioned the video, “Me after a wedding. Chilling with family “ Archived Link

Furthermore, when examining the other photos posted on Marie’s Instagram account, it was clear that the person mistakenly identified as President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in the video bears little resemblance to the Sri Lankan president from some angles. Below is a photo of her family that she had posted.

Archived Link

We were able to contact Marie over the phone, and she identified herself as Mary Therese Bernard. She said that a video posted by her is misleadingly claiming to feature President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. In contrast, Marie confirmed the person in the video is none other than her husband, Roshan Nilanga Perera.

Stating that the video was taken after a wedding ceremony at the Honey Beach Club at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo on September 20th, she also sent us another video taken at the same time with her husband and daughters.

The Presidential Media Division also confirmed that the person in the video is not President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. President Anura recently visited the United States to address the United Nations General Assembly. You can view his speech here.

Join us to learn more about our investigative fact findings.

Conclusion :

Our investigation reveals that the video circulating on social media, purportedly showing President Anura Kumara Dissanayake with a woman, is misleading. A woman named Mary Therese Bernard is seen in the video with her husband, Roshan Nilanga Perera.