Accusing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of illegal overreach, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) charged today that the higher echelons of the Yahapalana government had placed undue pressure on law enforcement.
In response to a controversial interview given by former Solicitor General Suhada Gamlath to a Sunday newspaper on the Avant Garde floating armoury case yesterday, SLPP Chairman Prof. G. L. Pieris told reporters this morning that Wickremesinghe had violated the rule of law by summoning Gamlath to Temple Trees.
In the interview in question, Gamlath detailed meetings he had allegedly been summoned to at the Prime Minister’s official residence and pressure mounted on the police to expedite the case. The senior official identified a number of top Cabinet Ministers including Patali Champika Ranawaka and Dr. Rajitha Senaratne as being present in the meetings, as well as Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
“Gamlath was instructed to arrest Gotabaya Rajapaksa by these Ministers with the assurance that he would be protected. As an official with a backbone, he refused to do it. This is the reality of this country,” Prof. Peiris said.
“I was surprised by the Prime Minister’s response, in which he acknowledged he had summoned officers to Temple Trees. But he has no right to do that. According to the Criminal Procedure Code, only the Police have the right to carry out investigations when a case is filed against someone in Court. When necessary, advice can be sought from the Attorney General’s Department under the supervision of a Magistrate Court,” he said.
Prof. Peiris pledged that political interference in the country’s legal system will come to an end under a Gotabaya Rajapaksa-led SLPP government.
“These people shouldn’t hold topmost positions in the Government. They should be in jail. We have never seen an era in which the legal system was corrupt to such an extent. Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government will have to clean this up from top to bottom, and we will do it,” he added.
(Republic Next)