Over 1,500 pages of vital testimonies not given to Church

Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has said the government did not make available the testimonies of those who appeared before the Presidential Commission on the Easter Sunday attacks. Those testimonies are on six CDs and run into 1,500 pages, the prelate said so while addressing the First Meeting of the Archdiocesan Presbyterian at the Archbishops House Conference Hall on 11 March.

“A team of our lawyers has sifted through the CD’s and found nearly 70,000 pages of evidence. In any case, we have found out that over 1,500 pages are missing in these CD’s, and we cannot open them. These missing pages contain the evidence given by key witnesses such as Hadiya, the wife of Zahran Hashim, and Sarah Jesmin, one of the leading protagonists who associated closely with the terror group.”

Cardinal Ranjith said 2024 marks the fifth anniversary of the Easter Sunday attacks, which cost 273 lives. There is absolute silence and attempts to mislead the public, he added.

The government gave the Catholic Church CDs containing the volumes of the sittings of the Commission of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday attacks.

“A letter was sent to the President by the National Committee for seeking the truth about the Easter attack on 11th October 2023 signed by me, His Lordship Bishop Harold Anthony Perera, the Bishops of Galle and Kandy and the three Auxiliary Bishops of Colombo, and 28 others, including priests and a group of lawyers, calling for a fresh and independent investigation into these attacks, but not even a letter of acknowledgement was sent to us,” he said.

The government continues to ignore these requests while affirming continuously that 99 percent of the investigations on the attacks were complete, the Cardinal said.

“Now they have filed cases against 23 Muslims who were associated with Zahran and his group and are seeking to turn them into scapegoats while not inquiring into all aspects of the case.”

The Cardinal said, “We will organize many initiatives calling upon the authorities to be sensitive to the demand for a full, independent and fair investigation into these attacks. Besides, no inquiry has been conducted, up until now, on new evidence emerging in the case, like the witness evidence given by Azad Moulana, the Personal Secretary of Shivanesathural Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan, a powerful Minister in the present government who alleged that the said Pillaiyan was the go between who assisted the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) to approach Zahran and his group.

“He also affirmed that the said group received money through Pillaiyan from the DMI, which was then headed by Suresh Saleh, the present government’s Director of State Intelligence. There were meetings between Suresh Saleh and Zahran, and a lorry load of suspicious materials was released without being checked on the orders of the present IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon at the Gelanigama exit of the Southern Highway. Its destination was the safe house of Zahran Hashim in Walana, Panadura, and the said lorry belonged to the Avant-Garde Security Services, closely connected to former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and presumably contained explosives.

“You would ask me why we keep on insisting on this matter so much. Well, the reason for that is our Christian vocation. The Church is, as you know, the Body of Christ, and whenever or wherever in the body pain is experienced, it has to be felt by all.”