Former Minister and the leader of the National Freedom Front spoke up after days of silence, again to warn the country of a 'Western conspiracy,' local media reports said.

Commenting on the speech given recently by Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka who said that the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was the first defendent in any case of corruption in the former government, Weerawansa said his accusations are a part of a Western conspiracy to remove Rajapaksa out of local politics.

Weerawansa said that the Western conspirators and their local allies have now resorted to character assassinations to portray Rajapaksa as corrupt, thereby hindering his political future.

He also said that in the Tamil society, no one accuses the former LTTE leader Prabhakaran as corrupt.

If Rajapaksa had done what the West wanted him to do, nothing of this sort would have happened, Weerawansa said. Those who accuse Rajapaksa are betraying the nation, he also added.