{"id":101188,"date":"2013-08-19T20:30:59","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T15:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=101188"},"modified":"2013-08-19T20:30:59","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T15:00:59","slug":"release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/","title":{"rendered":"Release The Buried Reports, Be Transparent – Bar Association SL Tells Commonwealth Sharma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senior Lawyers at the Sri Lankan Bar will take issue directly with the Commonwealth Secretariat over a decision by Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma<\/a><\/span> to refrain from disclosing the content of two major legal opinions he sought regarding the Sri Lankan Government’s impeachment of its Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

BASL President, Upul Jayasuriya<\/p><\/div>\n

As exclusively revealed in the Colombo Telegraph<\/a><\/span>, Commonwealth SG Sharma may have covered up two key independent legal opinions by South African and British jurists on the legality of Sri Lanka\u2019s impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, withholding the content of those opinions even from the powerful Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG<\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n

Bar Association of Sri Lanka President, Upul Jayasuriya<\/a><\/span> said he would be writing directly to the Commonwealth Secretariat, calling for transparency and a release of these two legal opinions. “We are interested in this matter ourselves, these are opinions sought about the Sri Lankan judicial system. We are stakeholders in this issue so whether the impeachment of Shirani Bandaranayake was wrong or right, we have every right to know,” Jayasuriya told Colombo Telegraph.<\/p>\n

He added that in the name of transparency, the Secretary General had an obligation to reveal the content of the opinions he had sought about the Sri Lankan impeachment.<\/p>\n

“Kamalesh Sharma did not pay for these independent opinions with his personal silver – he paid for it with Commonwealth funds,” he charged.<\/p>\n

Jayasuriya explained that as a citizen of the Commonwealth and as a member of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association which was responsible for conceptualising the Latimer House principles<\/a><\/span> governing the independence of the judiciary in Commonwealth Member States. “We are entitled to know if there has been a violation of these principles or not,” he explained.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

JC Weliamuna<\/p><\/div>\n

Under Jayasuriya’s stewardship, the Bar has refused to recognise the appointment of Bandaranayake’s successor Mohan Pieris<\/a><\/span> and decided to invite the impeached Chief Justice to his presidential installation.<\/p>\n

The BASL remains a staunch critic of the impeachment process against Bandaranayake and the Government’s ongoing witch-hunt against the deposed Chief Justice.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, legal activist group the Lawyers Collective<\/a><\/span> that mobilised against Bandaranayake’s impeachment said they were shocked at the revelations about the Secretary General’s decision to bury the reports. Speaking on behalf of the collective, activist and Lawyer J.C Weliamuna<\/a><\/span> said that the Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth Secretary was undoubtedly expected to be more transparent and should disclose all\u00a0 facts for the Members to come to a reasonable and correct conclusion on the venue of the CHOGM<\/a><\/span>. “In addition, if the story is true, the conduct the SG suggests unfortunate “collaboration” with the Sri Lankan political authorities,\u00a0 to suppress a material fact that may be conclusive in many aspects. The Members of Commonwealth then\u00a0 must then ask whether the SG should continue in that position any more in order to maintain the integrity and values of the Commonwealth,” Weliamuna charged.<\/p>\n

He said that the impeachment was not an exclusively-internal matter for the country and therefore, post justification of impeachment\u00a0 (through various other means using its own organs\u00a0 within Sri Lanka)\u00a0 of the impeachment cannot justify a blatant violation of Commonwealth Values.<\/p>\n

Speculation in Commonwealth and diplomatic circles is that the Secretary General has decided not to disclose the content of the opinions because they may have forced him to act against Sri Lanka which is the next host of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting this November, a top diplomat told Colombo Telegraph.<\/p>\n

It is learned that CMAG Chair Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni is unhappy about Sharma\u2019s lack of disclosure of these key legal opinions. The Canadian High Commissioner in London wrote to Sharma in May this year, asking for the opinions to be provided to the CMAG. Sharma responded that the opinions were “privileged”.<\/p>\n

Related stories;<\/p>\n

Exclusive: Secretary General Hides Two Key Legal Findings On CJ Impeachment From CMAG<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

C\u2019wealth Spokesman, Presidential Media In Joint Twitter Q&A \u2013 Uku Fails To Answer Tough Questions On CJ Impeachment Reports And Others<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":79698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nRelease The Buried Reports, Be Transparent - Bar Association SL Tells Commonwealth Sharma - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Release The Buried Reports, Be Transparent - Bar Association SL Tells Commonwealth Sharma - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-19T15:00:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Upul-Jayasuriya.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"127\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"185\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/\",\"name\":\"Release The Buried Reports, Be Transparent - Bar Association SL Tells Commonwealth Sharma - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Upul-Jayasuriya.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-19T15:00:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Upul-Jayasuriya.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Upul-Jayasuriya.jpg\",\"width\":\"127\",\"height\":\"185\",\"caption\":\"Upul Jayasuriya -BASL President\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Release The Buried Reports, Be Transparent – Bar Association SL Tells Commonwealth Sharma\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Release The Buried Reports, Be Transparent - Bar Association SL Tells Commonwealth Sharma - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Release The Buried Reports, Be Transparent - Bar Association SL Tells Commonwealth Sharma - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2013-08-19T15:00:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":127,"height":185,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Upul-Jayasuriya.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/","name":"Release The Buried Reports, Be Transparent - Bar Association SL Tells Commonwealth Sharma - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Upul-Jayasuriya.jpg","datePublished":"2013-08-19T15:00:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Upul-Jayasuriya.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Upul-Jayasuriya.jpg","width":"127","height":"185","caption":"Upul Jayasuriya -BASL President"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/release-the-buried-reports-be-transparent-bar-association-sl-tells-commonwealth-sharma\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Release The Buried Reports, Be Transparent – Bar Association SL Tells Commonwealth Sharma"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Upul-Jayasuriya.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101188"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101226,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101188\/revisions\/101226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}