Opposition complains of selective prosecution of Easter carnage suspects

By Saman Indrajith

The main opposition SJB on Tuesday in Parliament found fault with the government’s prosecution process of Easter Sunday suspects and expressed its displeasure at the releasing of suspects directly involved with the terror attacks.

Chief Opposition Whip and Kandy District SJB MP Lakshman Kiriella said that the government had resorted to a selective prosecution process. “A report by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry that investigated the Easter Sunday carnage has been released and made public. That report has named persons responsible for the terror attacks and recommended legal action against them. But most of them are still at large. After the PCoI report was released the government appointed a sub-committee of ministers to study the report and that sub-committee identified a list of persons to be prosecuted. Now the cases are being filed only against those who had been named by the ministers. Other suspects are let off. Those in the custody are freed on bail, while others still at large are not arrested. This is how the government conducts the Easter Sunday prosecution process. The incumbent Justice Minister is a brilliant lawyer. Why cannot he understand that this is wrong? We hope that he should be involved in this unjust affair and rectify this error to ensure the due process of dispensing the law. This is not only unjust for the victims and their living relatives but also a great crime to exonerate the criminals responsible for the Easter Sunday carnage. In the first rounds of investigations the investigators found information on some suspects. I refrain from naming some of them. Those suspects have now been released. The government prosecutes the suspects on whom they collected information in later stages of the investigation. This is absurd. I call on the Justice Minister to intervene in this affair to correct this situation,” Chief Opposition Whip Kiriella said.