SRI LANKA: A COUNTRY WHERE ALL ARE NOT EQUAL UNDER THE LAW (and some are more equal than others)

“The Courts can only issue orders for implementation of the country’s laws.  It is upto the law enforcement entities to carry out such orders.  If the Police and other law enforcement entities delay or ignore such orders then there is nothing the Courts can do”

The above statement had actually been made by a sitting judge in open court recently which clearly shows the law and order situation in the country.  This statement was made by Colombo additional magistrate Prasanna de Alwis in connection with the murder case of ex-Presidential Adviser, Bharatha Lakshman, where the CID failed to arrest the suspect, Duminda de Silva, who is a Member of Parliament of the government party.

Over 4 months have passed since a court order had been issued by Kaduwela Magistrate to arrest the Deputy General Manager of Independent Television Networks (ITN), Sudharman Radaliygoda ,  over a charge of fraud.  The charges against him relate to the issue of fraudulent documents for the sale of scrap iron belonging to Sri Lanka Telecom.  This is an offence coming under Public Properties Act and hence unbailable.  All these 4 months the Police have meekly reported to the courts that since Radaliyagoda is not available at home, he could not be arrested. But, this very same Radaliyagoda, whom the Police claim is untraceable, took part in the last May Day rally under the flag of the UPFA led by the country’s President himself and many had seen him live on Television.

According to the laws of the country, Radaliyagoda is a suspect under arrest warrant issued by a court of law.  A similar warrant had been issued by Colombo Fort Magistrate against the son-in- law of General Fonseka, Danuna Tillekeratne, But in this case, the Police did not report that they could not arrest him as he was not at home but pasted posters all over the country telling that Danuna Tillekeratne is under an arrest warrant and anyone who gives a clue as to his whereabouts would be given a reward of 10 lakhs of rupees.  They also announced this over public address systems in the city of Colombo and paid visits to houses of his relatives and friends looking for him.  At the end, they filed a case against the 80-year old grand mother of Danuna Tillekeratne on the charge of giving temporary shelter to him.  It did not take even 3 months for the Police to do all this work.

Susil Kindelpitiya, who served as a Director of Sirasa Television Network, contested the 2010 General Elections for Colombo district from the UNP.  Within just a matter of two weeks from nomination date, he was arrested and jailed on a charge of kidnapping and issuing death threats to a woman.  Late on he was released by the courts as the woman complainant herself declared that the incident was a total fabrication and not true at all.

All those who serve in Police, Attorney General and the judicial courts are bound to abide by the Constitution of Sri Lanka.  According to the Constitution, all citizens are equal before the law and every person has a right to be treated equally.  In fact all officials of the President’s government never fail to announce at the top of their voices that in the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, no one suffers injustice.  But, let us further examine how the law is actually operated in the country.

General Sarath Fonseka was the common opposition candidate at the December 2009 Presidential Elections. After he lost the elections, in February 2010, he was taken into custody by the Army and was jailed on a military tribunal verdict.  General Fonseka presented a Fundamental Rights Petition to the Supreme Court in March 2010 pleading to declare the verdict of the Military Tribunal null and void.  The Supreme court was unable to take up the case for a hearing even after 2 years and 4 months, when he was released from prison on a Presidential pardon.  The election petition against the results of the Presidential election was rejected by the courts.  Also, the Fundamental Rights petition against the verdict of the military tribunal was also rejected by the courts.  The Supreme Court which failed to take up this case even on the expiry of a period of 2 years and 4 months, took only 4 hours to dispose of the withdrawal of the petition by General Fonseka after he got the presidential pardon!

The Attorney General’s Department which was hitherto under the Ministry of Justice, was taken over by the President after the 2010 Presidential Elections.  Accordingly, now the political leader in charge of the Attorney General’s Department is also the President himself.  Following is a record of activities which took place after the AG’s Dept. was taken over by the President.

Three cases filed against defeated Presidential Candidate, General Fonseka. For the first time in the history, the Attorney General was instrumental in filing two cases in a military tribunal against General Fonseka.  Cases filed against three family members of General Fonseka (Son in law, Danuna Tillekeratne, Mother in law Jayanthi Tillekeratne and Sister in law Asoka Tillekeratne)

Legal actions against MPs, Abdul Khader (Kandy), Earl Gunasekera (Polonnaruwa) and Lakshman Seneviratne (Badulla) who crossed over from the UNP to the government side, were suspended or withdrawn.  The crossing over of these three MPs helped the ruling party to obtain a  2/3 majority to pass the 18^th Amendment to the Constitution.  The case filed against Abdul Khader for misappropriation of public funds to the tune of 10 lakhs of rupees was withdrawn by the Attorney General.  The court ruling to the effect that the illegal hotel constructed by the sister of Earl Gunasekera in Minneriya reservation area be demolished, never saw its implementation.  The case against Lakshman Seneviratne for non-payment of a loan of 65 lakhs of rupees taken from the Bank of Ceylon, has since been suspended. The murder charges filed in the supreme court against ex Colombo District MP, Chandana Kathriarachchi, were withdrawn by the Attorney General.

The excuse trotted out by the Police for their failure to arrest MP Duminda Silva, who is a suspect in the killing of Presidential Adviser, Premachandra, is that they had not received Attorney General’s instructions.  Mr. Shani Abeysekera, Asst. Police Superintendent stated in open court recently that although they sent written requests for instructions from the Attorney General with regard to the arrest of Duminda Silva, they had not received any response so far.  (Although there is provision in the law for the CID to seek Attorney General’s opinion on orders received by them from lower courts, it is not mandatory to do so as per the country’s laws.)

It took only 24 hours for the Police to arrest and produce before courts an MP of the Opposition UNP who got involved in a fight under influence of liquor with a businessman. In that instance, the Police did not ask for Attorney General’s instructions to arrest a sitting Member of Parliament. It had been reported in the media that the businessman involved is a good friend of the President!

The investigations into the murder of Sunday Leader Editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, are now going on for the last 3 years.  During the 2010 Presidential Elections all of a sudden the case was handed over to the CID hinting that General Sarath Fonseka was involved in this murder.  But, according to available information, the investigations reveal that accusing fingers are being directed at very high places in the government itself. Due to this, the requests for Attorney General’s opinion are now lying inside cupboards.  The only accused in this case who was under arrest, Pitchai Jesudasan, was found dead inside the prison on 13 October 2011 under mysterious circumstances.

Minister of Public Relations, Mervyn Silva announced at a public meeting in Kiribathgoda that he is the one who assaulted and broke the limbs of Journalist, Poddala Jayantha.  The Police spokesman, Ajith Rohana, announced that the Police will conduct investigations within two days  into this claim but nothing was heard thereafter.  Instead, a week later, Minister Basil Rajapakse (President’s brother) spoke at a coordination meeting in Kelaniya praising the work of Minister Mervyn Silva. The Police, unfortunately, had not even been able to get a statement from Minister Mervyn Silva still.

The latest episode in this saga of unequal application of law, is the incident when burglars broke into the house of Nishantha Wickremasinghe, Sri Lankan Airlines Chairman who is a brother of the first lady, Shiranthi Rajapakse and stole a massive amount of foreign currency and an expensive Rolex watch – all running into millions of rupees.  The Police were able to solve the case within no time and the stolen money and the watch recovered.  But the real point here is how did Wickremasinghe get into possess such a large amount of illegal and undeclared foreign currency.  The law enforcers in this case have been very lenient due to his high connections.  The rules of the country’s Central Bank state that for anyone carrying over US$2000.-foreign currency to the country it is mandatory to register the amount with the Customs.  Sources from the Customs say that there has not been any record within the past year of either Wickremasinghe or any of his family members bringing foreign currency worth US$2000.- or above in to the country from overseas. Obviously, one law for the First Family, their relatives and those belonging to the government party and their supporters and another one for those who do not agree with them.

All the above incidents show very clearly the direction Sri Lanka is going now.

But the tragedy is that the so called majority has no clue or do not care at all about these happenings.  They are still dreaming of the promised “Miracle of Asia” when in fact it would only end up as the “Debacle of Asia”