Rajitha hits out at Wijeyadasa and Marapana

BY Zahrah Imtiaz-2015-11-07 

President Maithripala Sirisena has called a Special Cabinet Meeting on Monday (9) to discuss the controversial Avant Garde investigation, which threatens a serious split in the Yahapalana Government.
Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Senaratne addressing a Cabinet media briefing yesterday... ... (6) said serious concerns have arisen within the Cabinet over statements exonerating Avant Garde of wrong doing by Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe and Minister of Law and Order Thilak Marapana although the issue has plunged the owning company into a slew of controversies over their floating armouries and the origins of their weapons.

Cabinet Ministers had strongly criticized the statement made by Minister Marapana as he had not received prior Cabinet approval before making that statement in Parliament and was furthermore totally contrary to the official stance of the government.
"Soon after the 8 January Election we had a discussion with the National Executive Council and we brought this issue up. The meeting was held on a Tuesday and the Attorney General (AG) said that they had enough proof to arrest everyone connected to the Avant Garde case by Thursday. A senior official in the AG's Department had also prepared a document for the arrest of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

We made inquiries about the case when there were no arrests made even after Thursday and the AG's Department said that they had not prepared the Tamil translation of the indictment and this caused the delay. After a week's lapse they said it was a civil case and not criminal. A person from the AG's Department said there was intense pressure from a minister not to make the arrest. One person had got seven calls in a day from that minister", Minister Senaratne said.
He added that the Prime Minister had directed two Ministers with considerable legal experience to advise the AG's Department on the Avant Garde case.

Senaratne added that "One of the ministers had earlier represented Avant Garde in Court and his recommendation to the AG's Department was that Nissanka Senadhipathi should not be arrested".

Minister Rajapakshe in the meantime said in a statement to Parliament he had prevented the arrest of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
"We are not against anyone. There are no personal vendettas against Nissanka Senadhipathi. I heard that he had spoken on my behalf many times with Gotabaya. The first time I met him was at the Gold Centre opening" Minister Senaratne said.
He added, "The question is, why was this government formed in the first place? The people expected one thing from us and that was to bring an end to large scale corruption. We have not been successful in this case so far". The minister explained that investigations into the case had been completed but the issue was that no arrests were being made.
In addition to this, he alleged that certain documents were tampered in favour of Avant Garde during the previous regime.
He also lamented the fact that many of the ministers who were on the payroll of Mahinda Rajapaksa were in the current Cabinet with the ministers who fought against the Rajapaksa regime.

"We asked the President about allegations that he too had met Nissanka Senadhipathi on 10 January. He said that it was completely false. There were thousands who had come to congratulate him on that day and he did not know who Senadhipathi was".
Minister Senaratne said he, along with the ministers who helped establish the 'Yahapalanaya' Government would have to take a decision on their political future if no action is taken against Avant Garde.
"We have not been betrayed by the President or Prime Minister. We still have faith in them. It will all be settled after Monday" Minister Senaratne said.