April 2, 2012 By Colombo Telegraph -
“Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told his United National Party parliamentary group that the President’s brother and advisor Basil Rajapaksa, Presidential Chief of Staff Lalith Weeratunga, and Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundera were implicated in the alleged pre-election deal with the Tamil Tigers to assure Mahinda Rajapaksa’s election. They should therefore also be arrested, just as former Airport Authority Chairman Tiran Alles was. Alles’ sworn statement to the Terrorism Investigation Division reportedly accuses all three of having engineered a multi-million dollar payoff to the Tigers. Until June 13, Alles was held under arrest in National Hospital, where he was receiving treatment.” the US Embassy informed Washington.
- Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe
The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database which details the secret agreement with the Tamil Tigers to suppress Tamil votes in the 2005 Presidential election. The cable was written on June 14, 2007 by the US Ambassador to Colombo, Robert O. Blake.
Under the subject “SRI LANKA: OPPOSITION LEADER CALLS FOR ARREST OF PRESIDENT’S BROTHER, CHIEF OF STAFF, AND TREASURY SECRETARY” the ambassador wrote “United National Party (UNP) Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, citing the same grounds used by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) to arrest Tiran Alles (ref A), has called for the arrest of the President’s brother Basil Rajapaksa and other members of the President’s inner circle. Alles has documented his own involvement and the involvement of Basil and others in a secret agreement with the Tamil Tigers to suppress Tamil votes in the 2005 Presidential election. Alles reportedly placed a sworn affidavit and a video disk of at least one secret meeting with the Tigers in a secure location for his attorney’s possible use in his legal defense. On June 13, Alles was released on bail, but while he was in court for his hearing, his house was reportedly ransacked and the video disk stolen. Two recent Supreme Court decisions have also opened the door for Alles’ defense attorney to move to unfreeze his bank accounts and gain compensation for the cancellation of his license to sell mobile phone services in Sri Lanka’s Northeast.”
Related stories; WikiLeaks: Tiran Filmed “LTTE-Rajapaksa” Deal
Below we give the relevant part of the confidential cable;
