{"id":69527,"date":"2013-01-14T13:10:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-14T13:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=69527"},"modified":"2013-01-18T10:52:17","modified_gmt":"2013-01-18T10:52:17","slug":"commonwealth-secretary-general-condemns-dismissal-of-the-chief-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/commonwealth-secretary-general-condemns-dismissal-of-the-chief-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Commonwealth Secretary-General Condemns Dismissal Of The Chief Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\">Colombo Telegraph<\/a><\/span> &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Commonwealth Secretary-General <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Kamalesh+Sharma&amp;x=8&amp;y=4\">Kamalesh Sharma<\/a><\/span> today expressed deep disappointment at the dismissal of the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Shirani+Bandaranayake&amp;x=11&amp;y=4\">Chief Justice<\/a><\/span> of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_69528\" style=\"width: 470px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/commonwealth-secretary-general-condemns-dismissal-of-the-chief-justice\/kamalesh-sharma-the-commo-006\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-69528\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-69528\" class=\" wp-image-69528 \" title=\"Kamalesh-Sharma-the-Commo-006\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Kamalesh-Sharma-the-Commo-006.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Kamalesh-Sharma-the-Commo-006.jpg 460w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Kamalesh-Sharma-the-Commo-006-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-69528\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma| Photograph: Akira Suemori\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Secretary-General recalled his earlier statements about this matter, in particular his statement following the decision by Parliament on 11 January to impeach the Chief Justice, in which he had urged the Executive to pause and reflect carefully on the constitutional ramifications of the differing positions taken by the country\u2019s Judiciary and Legislature.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Reiterating the Commonwealth\u2019s profound collective concern at the recent developments and noting the deep divisions this had caused in Sri Lanka, the Secretary-General said,<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The dismissal of the Chief Justice will be widely seen, against the background of the divergence between the Judiciary and the Legislature, as running counter to the independence of the judiciary, which is a core Commonwealth value.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have been in touch over recent days with the Government of Sri Lanka at the highest levels and had offered Commonwealth assistance to find a way forward from the constitutional impasse. I will continue to remain engaged with the Sri Lankan Government following today\u2019s developments. I will also consider further Commonwealth initiatives and responses as are envisaged in situations that could be perceived to constitute violations of core Commonwealth values and principles,&#8221; he concluded.<\/p>\n<p>The Secretary-General will be visiting Sri Lanka in February.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":69528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2187,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-most-popular","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Commonwealth Secretary-General Condemns Dismissal Of The Chief Justice - 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