De Facto CJ Felicitated By De-Facto Bar Midst Navi Pillay Visit
August 26, 2013
The
Bar Association of Sri Lanka has refused to welcome the present de
facto Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, despite several attempts made by pro
government lawyers, Colombo Telegraph learns.
De facto Chief Justice Mohan Pieris
Former Vice President of the BASL Anoma Gunatilaka who resigned when the
Bar voted overwhelmingly to support Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake
during the impeachment and resolved to refrain from welcoming and
illegally appointed successor, and W. Dayaratne along with recently
appointed PCs have now organised a felicitation dinner to show the world
that the “Bar” is with Mohan Pieris.
Interestingly, it has been organised for Monday night, the day hand
picked judges meet Navi Pillay to impress upon her that the Sri Lankan
judiciary is upto the mark on the protection of human rights. The
lawyers working in all state institutions and Forces are mandatorily
required to attend tonight’s dinner while all Partners of all the legal
Firms have been given the books of 10 tickets (and often spoken to
personally by the judges) to ensure attendance of the lawyers.
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka has decided to boycott the event.
The de facto Chief Justice was formerly the advisor to the Cabinet, the
infamous Defence Ministry and the spokesman of the Government of Sri
Lanka who had defended the Sri Lankan human rights record in Geneva.
During his brief period as the Attorney General he is credited with
having totally politicised the AG’s department.
In a news flash an SMS is currently being circulated through the lawyers with the following message:
“A felicitation of the de facto CJ without the BASL blessings to be held
on Monday evening by a grateful group of lawyers. In reaction to the
inconvenient pressure group “Lawyers for Democracy”, those who
attending this function are to be used to form a counter pressure group
– “Lawyers for Favors”.
