By Indika Sri Aravinda
Despite telling the local media that Sri Lanka will not respond to the summons issued on President Mahinda Rajapaksa by a US court, the government has now decided that a lawyer in the US will watch the interests of the President.
Justice Ministry Secretary Suhada Gamlath told The Sunday Leader that the Attorney General’s Department will retain a lawyer to oversee the President’s interests in the US District Court which had issued the summons on Rajapaksa
.A US-based Tamil lobby filed the case claiming damages from the President as commander-in-chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces for the alleged killing of Raghiar Manoharan.
The Justice Ministry said last week that it had received the summons but said the government would not respond to it.
“Under our laws, the President has immunity,” Gamlath had told the media last week.
“We don’’t have to respond to such summons and I have written to the District Court of the Southern District of Columbia of our legal position,” Gamlath had said.
The Sri Lankan government has repeatedly argued that it has been unfairly criticised for ending a conflict that claimed tens of thousands of lives amid regular suicide bombings of government targets.
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Sutirtho Patranobis, Hindustan Times
Colombo, June 25, 2011
President Mahinda Rajapaksa could have expectedly felt reassured last week after meeting friends, Hu Jintao and Dmitri Medvedev, at an economic forum in St Petersburg, Russia. No one can blame Rajapaksa for feeling a little hot lately under the collar of his starched white shirt and customary red stole The last three months have been particularly hard on Rajapaksa's reputation of being a strongman and meeting powerful friends is one way of snapping out of a dark, diplomatic corner where he was pushed into on human rights issues. more »
Saturday, June 25, 2011Mahinda Rajapaksa
Justice Ministry Secretary Suhada Gamlath told The Sunday Leader that the Attorney General’s Department will retain a lawyer to oversee the President’s interests in the US District Court which had issued the summons on Rajapaksa
.A US-based Tamil lobby filed the case claiming damages from the President as commander-in-chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces for the alleged killing of Raghiar Manoharan.The Justice Ministry said last week that it had received the summons but said the government would not respond to it.
“Under our laws, the President has immunity,” Gamlath had told the media last week.
“We don’’t have to respond to such summons and I have written to the District Court of the Southern District of Columbia of our legal position,” Gamlath had said.
The Sri Lankan government has repeatedly argued that it has been unfairly criticised for ending a conflict that claimed tens of thousands of lives amid regular suicide bombings of government targets.
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Lanka's war of blame
Sutirtho Patranobis, Hindustan TimesColombo, June 25, 2011
President Mahinda Rajapaksa could have expectedly felt reassured last week after meeting friends, Hu Jintao and Dmitri Medvedev, at an economic forum in St Petersburg, Russia. No one can blame Rajapaksa for feeling a little hot lately under the collar of his starched white shirt and customary red stole The last three months have been particularly hard on Rajapaksa's reputation of being a strongman and meeting powerful friends is one way of snapping out of a dark, diplomatic corner where he was pushed into on human rights issues. more »
