France says no evidence at all of Ekneligoda living there
The UPFA’s Puttalam District Parliamentarian Arundika Fernando told Parliament on Wednesday that Ekneligoda was living in France under disguise. In a clarifying statement on Friday, he claimed he had met Mr. Ekneligoda together with a onetime Sri Lankan journalist Manjula Wediwardena. He claimed that the cartoonist had shaved his head and was in disguise.
A private TV channel on Friday night featured Mr. Fernando in a programme where he repeated the same claims. He said he was a good friend of Mr. Wediwardena. In the MP’s presence, the TV channel telephoned Mr. Wediwardena in France. “I do not know Mr. Fernando at all. I have never met him,” Mr. Wediwardena replied.
Official Government spokesperson Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella dissociated himself from Mr. Fernando’s remarks. He told Thursday’s media briefing it was the law enforcement authorities who would have to carry out investigations. Sandya Ekneligoda, the missing journalist’s wife, told the Sunday Times, “The statement by Mr. Fernando in Parliament has caused tremendous embarrassment to our family. My children did not attend school. They had been asked whether theywere playing the fool when they said that their father was missing.”
She said that in a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa she had told him that if Mr. Fernando’s claims were correct, the Government should bring her husband back to Sri Lanka. “In the alternative, I have said, the MP should provide credible evidence of my husband’s whereabouts so we can get in touch,” she said.
Free Media Movement (FMM) Convener Sunil Jayasekara told the Sunday Times that the CID should question the MP to seek more information about his claim. “We think the MP is using Parliamentary privileges and trying to mislead the people. He is claiming that a journalist had introduced Mr. Ekneligoda to him when he visited France in January this year. However the journalist Manjula Wediwardana has sent an e-mail to us saying he never met the MP in France or introduced any Mr. Ekneligoda to him,” the FMM convener said.
By Chris Kamalendran
By Chris Kamalendran
Video: Eknaligoda’s wife willing to debate MP
MONDAY, 10 JUNE 2013 Earlier Fernandi said that Mr. Eknaligoda was in hiding in France and that she communicated with him regularly.
“If Arundhika Fernando met him as he says he did, he should have immediately informed the Sri Lankan embassy in France at the time and brought him home. He could have done it easily. As a parliamentarian he has the power to do that but he had not,” she said.
Mrs. Eknaligoda said that when she heard the statement made by Mr. Fernando in parliament last week, she had contacted Mr. Fernando’s mobile phone to verify the information but that his phone was continuously switched off and that she could not reach him.
She said she had got in touch with the French Embassy which had also confirmed that Mr. Eknaligoda was not in France.
She also stated that journalist Manjula Wediwardena who Mr. Fernando alleged had introduced Mr. Eknaligoda to him in France had contacted Mrs. Eknaligoda immediately after the statement was made and informed her that it was not true and that he did not have any information about him.
Mrs. Eknaligoda said that she believed the statement made by Mr. Fernando was meant to ease the controversy surrounding her husband’s disappearance before the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which is expected to take place in Sri Lanka this November.
(Olindhi Jayasundera)
