Yahapalana govt. ignored expert advise of counter terror laws – Ajith Rohana

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Many of the recommendations made by the expert committee appointed by the previous government to draft a new counter terrorism law had not been included in the draft bill that was prepared, DIG AJith Rohana on Saturday told the PCoI investigating the Easter Sunday attacks.

Rohana, who was also a part of the Committee, said that they had made a number of recommendations on dealing with religious extremists. They, too, had not been included in the draft, he said.

DIG Rohana said that a proposal to create a new counter terrorism law had been made due to the weaknesses of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) of 1979 and the Public Security Ordinance of 1945. It was impossible to arrest certain categories of people under the provisions of those Acts, he said.

“On April 21, 2016, former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinge appointed a committee under former Minister of Law and Order, Sagala Ratnayaka to formulate a new counter terrorism law. I represented the IGP in this Committee,” Rohana said.

The Committee paid attention to the current global trends in terrorism and the use of the internet for terrorist activities. A draft of the act was published on September 17, 2018 through a gazette.

“However, most of our recommendations were not in the draft.”

The Attorney General’s representative leading the evidence asked Rohana whether the Committee had considered religious extremism and come up with a definition.

“When the draft was made, Easter Sunday attack had not taken place but we looked at the global trends. We realised that spying was a big problem and we wanted spying to be declared an offence. But it was not in the draft and when we questioned we were told that the government would bring a separate bill on intelligence activities and that the issue on spying would be addressed then.”

DIG Rohana also said that the authority to issue detention orders for suspects arrested for terrorism-related activities should be given to a DIG instead of a court of law, and bail shouldn’t be granted for a person arrested on charges of terrorism for one year.

The DIG said: “If bail is granted before a year, AG’s advice must be sought. If a suspect is to be given bail after a year, a high court should do that. I am making these suggestions based on the complexity of terrorism these days.”