Inside Story: Ranil, AG’s Dept Buckled Gota’s Case

May 15, 2015

Serious concerns have been raised with regard to the conduct of the Attorney Generals’ department which resulted in Gotabaya Rajapaksa being granted a wide ranging interim relief, preventing his arrest from ‘any state officer’.

PM Ranil Wickramasinghe,Minister of Public Order John Amaratunga and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa | File photo

The case is set for objections by the state on July 17th and the next hearing is set for October 6th. However, no date has been given for counter objections by the Petitioner Rajapaksa. Under usual circumstances “final determination” of a Fundamental Rights Petition takes a minimum of two years due to procedural lags in the system.

Earlier the Colombo Telegraph reported that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was instrumental in preventing the arrestof Rajapaksa.

The actions of the AG’s department looked blatantly politicised during the regime of ‘de-politicisation’ and good governance, with the premier and the AG’s department acting hand in glove in order to protect the political interests of the latter.

The bench hearing the Petition seemed to have been ‘fixed’ with Sarath De Abrew whose conduct had been continuously questioned to the extent that there were no cases assigned to him for a long period while he was a Judge of the Court of Appeal, was a member of the bench.

Both Abrew and Eva Wanasundera the former Attorney General have been staunch supporters of the previous regime, with the only seemingly neutral judge Buwaneka Aluwihare opting to recuse himself from the bench.

Manouevirng the benches of the higher courts is a widespread practice among practitioners in Hulftsdorp, with instructing Attorneys and the registry of the higher courts playing a ‘behind the scenes’ role in ensuring that a case is called before a preferred bench, the Colombo Telegraph learns.Read More