Chairman of the Presidential Committee that investigated into the Easter Sunday attack, Supreme Court justice Vijith Malalgoda told the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing the same that the final report given by the committee cannot by itself be used as sufficient evidence to prosecute.
He said this today (20), when the three members of the Commission was called to give evidence before the PSC, where the three members of the Commission headed by justice Malalgoda, former secretary Padamasiri Jayamanne and former IGP N. K. Illangakone gave evidence before the select committee.
Nearly two months ago the Attorney General (AG) Dappula de Livera wrote to the acting IGP instructing him that there is sufficient evidence to name the former Defense Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and former IGP Pujith Jayasundara as suspects of the Easter Sunday attacks. Accordingly, charges were drawn against the duo under sections 296, 298,328 and 329 of the Penal Code. Section 296 which deals with murder states, “whoever commits murder shall be punished with death”. The charges were drawn against them on the basis that they fail to take action which resulted in over 250 deaths.
Both the AG’s letter to the acting IGP as well as in the submissions made Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) Thusith Mudalige it was expressly stated that the action against the former secretary and IGP commenced based on the final report compiled by the Presidential Commission.
Today’s revelation by justice Malalgoda poses serious questions about the validity of the action maintained against the former high-ranking officials.
Although this matter was admitted by the chairman of the Commission himself today, this issue was raised at the magisterial hearing when the matter was heard by Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayarathne on 3 July. Magistrate questioned the DSG as to whether the Presidential Commission was stipulated under some written law such as the ‘Bond Commission’. It was accordingly learnt that it was not the case and the Commission was merely appointed by the President.
She explained that the reason to pose the question was to guide the court as to consider the evidence in the final report as conclusive and sufficient or separate evidence should be elucidated to bring charges against the said accused. The Chief Magistrate granted bail based on several grounds and this too was challenged by the Attorney General by way of a separate revision application.
Therefore it is now clear that the findings in the final report is not to be final and conclusive evidence to prosecute anyone and that it can only be done through ascertaining fresh evidence.
Related posts:
JD / August 21, 2019
If Presidential commission reports are sufficient to prosecute the culprits, Ranil and his Bond Scam gang should be in jail for years now. Why those all mighty National List MPs are asking what does the Sri lankan Intelligence know about the Zaharan’s work.
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Jadon / August 21, 2019
Enough of this blame game and real time soap opera!
Now, we need to know about the foreign hands, the master minds that set up, funded, trained own and operate IS in the Middle East. ISIS or ISIL was set up to de-stablize Syria and Iraq.
Seems that Saudi and US Special Operations Forces (SOF) used the local Muslim youth, just as India’s RAW and IB used the Tamil youth groups in the past to de-stablize Sri Lanka.
This time India is with Sri Lanka, so we know that Saudi and SOF which own IS and the IS narrative were behind the attacks and now we need to hold Saudi-US SOF accountable at the highest criminal court in the World. Time to go to the Hague and file a criminal case against USA which has declines to he held accountable by any international court – the biggest rogue state in the world that wants to turn Lanka into a military base with SOFA.
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JD / August 21, 2019
Those almighty National list MPs, bond Scammers, Those who wrote the Orumiththanadu constitution and paid bundles of money to save Ranil from NCM are unhappy because some who sat on the witness stand have lied to them and Sarath Fonseka also may have contributed to that some way. They have not found what they wanted.
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Dinuk / August 21, 2019
Today is exactly 4 months after Easter attacks that killed 250 people.
Last Sunday attacks this week in Afghanistan on a wedding party were also by the same US owned IS outfit.
US is biggest Rogue State in the world and destablizing South Asia and Iran, China –to make America Great again..
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Lasith / August 21, 2019
Well there’s a surprise. The buck is still moving….bunch of utter wankers.
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Spring Koha / August 22, 2019
In Sri Lanka, you will wait for ever and ever for someone in authority to say “The Fuck stops here”.
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K.A. Sumanasekera / August 21, 2019
How clever is Dr Ranil?..
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Dr Ranil’s Cover Up PSC has now even made our Mahavamsa AG and DP guilty of trying to find out who hid the Intelligence which could have saved the 300 Catholic Lives from the Muslim Terrorists?.-
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What a beautiful Law & Order this Yahapalanaya has introduced to our Mahavamsa…
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kebab / August 21, 2019
On the contrary, it shows there is evidence against former IGP and Defence Secretary.A few days before the 21 April these two were well aware that there was an attack impending and even knew the names of the attackers. The commission says as a covering comment that further investigation is needed.
The Court will decide what these two knew of the attack, and what they did with that knowledge and whether their inaction was a dereliction of duty and gross negligence
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Dodo / August 21, 2019
Today we mark exactly 4 months after the Easter carnage and there should be a vigil at independence sq. but the USAID-EU funded Colombo NGOs that made memorializing projects an NGO business have forgotten this crime by the biggest Rogue State in the world against the people of Lanka.
The Easter attacks in Sri Lanka were a double whammy. Economic Terrorism and the Weaponization of Ethno-religious identity politics to turn the country into blood bath by those who want to set up military bases in the Indian Ocean in Strategic Sri Lanka. The Economic Terrorism of the Easter attacks has been ignored in the analysis and need to be investigated much more. The US has a history of Economic Terrorism against may countries in the Middle East and Latin America and small islands all over the world, the worst being Chagos Islands
There is not enough evidence to prosecute because the foreign hands behind the Easter carnage funded and organised by Saudi-US Special Operations Forces (SOF) which own and operate the Islamic State (IS) and narrative were coverered up by the fake FBI-CIA-MI 5, Interpol intelligance agencies that swarmed into the country to cover up crime.
There should be reports form all these foreign cover up intelligence agencies and we need reports on the funding streams, not fake news from Israel that Bitcoin funded the SOF operation to make GOSL sign SOFA to supposedly counter US Economic terror and then turn Lanka into a military base. Time for the deception to be exposed. Today is exactly 4 months after the Easter carnage and there should be a vigil at independence sq. but the USAID-EU funded memorializing projects of Colombo NGOs have forgotten this crime by the biggest Rogue State in the world against the people of Lanka.
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Colombo Man / August 21, 2019
What can we learn from this?
Expedite court cases against the perpetrators as a matter of urgency.
Handover maximum sentences.
Demote police officers who have neglected duty of care to the public.
have a strong security system in place with rapid response and coordination capabilities.
Maintain good relations with neighbouring friendly intelligence and security services.
Stronger well organised emergency services such as search and rescue, paramedics, fire brigade that could be mobilised immediately to face any eventuality.
BE PREPARED ALL THE TIME
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Jey / August 21, 2019
One is amazed at the speed of the inquiry and justice system works, when it comes to pass the blame to two clowns, Jayasundera and Hemasiri by the Chief clown Sirisena. This is very pathetic but no surprise as the whole is orchestrated by the clown Sirisena. Being the president and the Minister for Law & Order he must be held responsible. God help, Ranil is incompetent imbecile.
By the way, if these sort of inquiries can be done in ” internet speed” , what about the murder inquiries of the rugby player, Lasantha, Taraki and so on. “snail speed” of course due to implications of Gota and his cohorts.
You Sri Lankans are a utter incompetent lot, but gold medallist on human right violations.
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Bodin / August 22, 2019
Jey says
By the way, if these sort of inquiries can be done in ” internet speed” , what about the murder inquiries of the rugby player, Lasantha, Taraki and so on. “snail speed” of course due to implications of Gota and his cohorts.
If there is clear evidence against Gota isn’t it in the best interests of Ranil, or Sajith, or Anura Kumara” to get the case rushed through as the government, the US, Sampanthan, Diaspora groups etc are doing their damnest to get Gota out of the race? Ranil already said in Parliament when the crimes happened that Sarath Fonseka was behind it. But later sarath F was presented as a clean common candidate, and later appointed to the Yahapalanaya cabinet. Then when Ravi Karunanayake was found to be in cahoots with the Bond scam people, he was moved out and reappointed to the Yahapalanaya cabinet, and also to the top rung of the UNP.
How can such crooks be trusted?
The UNP is no longer a political party, but a mafia outfit run by a bunch of crooks where sadly, Ranil is the the double-faced crook who has become the upper-class facilitator of the mafia activity. In effect, we have no one to vote for.
Is there ANY good thing done by this government?
I think we muslims can at least be thankful that the govt. has adopted the revisions so that the 75 year old old bastrads who have run muslim affairs cannot legally wed 15 year old girls. But Sri Lanka being what it it, what is the use of laws?
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Jey / August 21, 2019
One is amazed at the speed of the inquiry and justice system works, when it comes to pass the blame the two clowns, Jayasundera and Hemasiri by the Chief clown Sirisena. This is very pathetic but no surprise as the whole is orchestrated by the clown Sirisena. Being the president and the Minister for Law & Order he must be held responsible. God help, Ranil is incompetent imbecile.
By the way, if these sort of inquiries can be done in ” internet speed” , what about the murder inquiries of the rugby player, Lasantha, Taraki and so on. “snail speed” of course due to implications of Gota and his cohorts.
You Sri Lankans are a utter incompetent lot, but gold medallist on human right violations.
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Spring Koha / August 21, 2019
This could have been foretold on the evening of Easter Sunday. Everybody running around looking for a scapegoat, looking for somewhere to hide. All the money and effort and time spent on something ‘official’ to ensure a cover-up. Just like all the other upheavals of national concern that ended in the suspects going scot free, unpunished.
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Gune / August 21, 2019
The farce in Sri Lanka continues. What a waste of time these commissions are and at what cost to the tax payer. Nobody is accountable???
So is this “So Sri Lanka” or is it the “Wonder of Asia “ ?
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Rajash / August 21, 2019
No conclusive evidence to prosecute Tamils who were carpet bombed
No conclusive evidence to prosecute LTTE carders who surrendered and subsequently murdered
No conclusive evidence to prosecute those who attacked Muslim owned properties and mosque
No conclusive evidence to prosecute those who murdered Lasantha
No conclusive evidence to prosecute those who murdered Mohammed Wasim Thajudeen
No conclusive evidence to prosecute those who are guilty of Bond scam
No conclusive evidence to prosecute Rajapakses on mega corruption
No conclusive evidence to prosecute Gota on war crimes
No conclusive evidence to prosecute those who are guilty of many journalists who disappeared
No conclusive evidence to prosecute Kiling of Maheswaran
etc etc etc
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Sathiya-Moorthy / August 22, 2019
Rajesh says
“No conclusive evidence to prosecute Tamils who were carpet bombed.
No conclusive evidence to prosecute LTTE carders who surrendered and subsequently murdered…….”
Nonsense.
We have detailed evidence to show that the LTTE murdered more Tamils than everybody else put together.
Even Tamil columnists like DBSJeyraj and Sebastian Rasalingam have said it.
Chanradrahasan has said it.
But the leader of the political mouthpiece of the LTTE, and his collaborators are still at large.
Adel Balasingham who trained Tamil children to commit suicide and blow themselves up killing others, lives in London with the tacit protection of the UK, and still at large.
Prabhakaran claimed that he will never surrender and he carried a cynaide capsule. He had his followers to carry a cyanide kuppi.
So what is this fool Rasaiah saying? LTTE cadre did not surrender, but they were very rightly shot down because they could be going to blow themselves up killing others.
WHY WAS THE LTTE DECLARED A TERRORIST GROUP BY MOST CIVILIZED NATIONS?
GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT.
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Native Vedda / August 27, 2019
Sathiya-Moorthy
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“Nonsense. We have detailed evidence to show that the LTTE murdered more Tamils than everybody else put together.”
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Brilliant.
Could you let us have copy of the comparative study which show you that “LTTE murdered more Tamils than everybody else put together.”
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You have raised many questions, rightly so, however lets deal with unattended issues in this island first and then ask Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deal with external threat, Adel Balasingham.Why didn’t Mahinda and Sirisena approach/request the UK government to prosecute her or extradite her to Sri Lanka?
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Hope you are open and truthful as your name suggest/denotes.
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“WHY WAS THE LTTE DECLARED A TERRORIST GROUP BY MOST CIVILIZED NATIONS?”
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Very smart question.
Is it because Hindians didn’t press the most civilized nations to ban the LTTE until they did so? I am not sure.
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Congratulations I see your Sinhala/Buddhist patriotic nationalism jumping out of your tummy.
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Wimpy Kid / August 29, 2019
The point is The Tamils don’t mind getting extorted, treated like animals or ultimately getting killed by LTTE.
This is because LTTE is their boys and girls.
But the Sinhalese don’t mind if their boys and girls get killed _ why ? _ because they were disgusted with the dodgy govenment. and chose to take the violent path.
In a way the Tamils are more Sensible and Sensitve to their own kind when compared to the Sinhalese.
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Douglas / August 21, 2019
Why not appoint another “Presidential Commission” to report on the “SCAMS” of all the “presidential Commissions” so far appointed.?
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Good Sense / August 23, 2019
The whole thing is a circus, full of clowns. Who is deceiving whom? An untrustworthy political leadership breeds an incredulous bureaucracy. These jokers think that the ordinary folks are a set of fools. They may be greedy to go after anything doled out but that does not mean that they can be deceived. Isn’t the Sri Lankan setup paving the way for an undemocratic takeover of the state machinery? The day that happens it is bad for the political masters because they have to face the firing squad with a scanty trial and bad for us folks because we would be under the jackboot of some Idi Amin.
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Mano / August 23, 2019
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Mano / August 25, 2019
Thank you and appreciate you are serious in your job.
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Jayantha de Alwis / August 30, 2019
These commissions and their reports are useless as their members who are “bum-kissers”. The main man responsible for this crime is non-other than Maithripala Sirisena, who failed to conduct Security Council meetings. Next president should punish him for this crime.
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