Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera "rushed to him" seeking his help to join the then government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in December 2014, former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said.

He made this remark speaking to the media after the court hearing on the Avant-Garde case where he and seven others are accused of causing a loss of Rs 11.4 billion to the government.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa also said that Samaraweera is the weakest ever Foreign Minister. He has done nothing and is trying to smear him by accusations which cannot be backed by facts, Rajapaksa added.

Samaraweera also tried to punish war heroes in international courts, but that attempt has also been squashed after the election of Doland Trump in the USA, said the former Defence Secretary.

Samaraweera was the first Foreign Minister of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government from November 2015 before being sacked in early 2007.