All documents pertaining to PCoI on Easter carnage handed over to House

Director-General of Legal Affairs of the Presidential Secretariat, Harigupta Rohanadeera yesterday (22) handed over to Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena all the volumes, including the final report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) into the Easter Sunday attacks and related witness records, the Presidential Secretariat announced.

The handing over of hitherto confidential documents took place amidst the Catholic Bishops’ Conference repeatedly accusing the governemnt and the Attorney General of suppressing the truth. The President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Lord Bishop Rt Rev Winston Fernando, and Archboshop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, slammed the government last week at the launch of ”Thitha’t at the BMICH.

 The PMD stated: The final report of the PCoI into the Easter Sunday attacks was handed over to Parliament on April 8, 2021 but the witness records were not released due to legal reasons.

The relevant files were handed over to Parliament on the instructions of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the findings of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry should be communicated to the public and for further perusal by the Members of Parliament.

Parliament sources said it was most likely that Speaker Abeywardena would make an announcement today on how the MPs might have access to the documents and witness records. Most probably they would be placed at the Parliamentary library, the sources said, adding that if the opposition demanded that they should be tabled, then the Speaker would have to consider making copies for each MP and to table them in the House.”