Mohan Peiris and the former president, Mahinda Rajapakse
COLOMBO--Sri Lanka's attorney general barred the country's chief justice from attending a regional conference on Monday after allegations he tried to help the former president retain power illegally.
Chief Justice Mohan Peiris is under growing pressure to stand down after he was implicated in an alleged coup attempt by former president Mahinda Rajapakse, who lost power in an election earlier this month.
Sri Lanka's bar association had threatened to boycott the Conference of Attorneys General, held in Colombo on Monday, if he attended.
"We have a written confirmation from the AG (attorney general) that the chief justice (Peiris) was de-invited," the head of the bar association Upul Jayasuriya told AFP.
"We said we will walk out if Mohan Peiris is present, and that would have been a big embarrassment."
Rajapakse appointed Peiris after impeaching the previous chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake when her rulings went against his administration.
New President Maithripala Sirisena, who was sworn in on January 9, has vowed to restore Bandaranayake to the role.
Police have opened a criminal investigation into claims that the defeated strongman Rajapakse tried to use military force to stay in power.
There was no immediate comment from the chief justice, who was with the president as the elections results began to emerge and is accused of trying to legitimise a state of emergency.
Rs 619 Million Public Funds Fraud Case Against De Facto CJ Filed Today
January 20, 2015
A corruption complaint against De Facto Chief Justice Mohan Pieris has been filed today.
In this case the petitioner challenge the alleged dishonesty and gross misconduct of the de facto Chief Justice Mohan Pieris, (then Attorney General) who had abuse his office to facilitate misappropriation 619 million rupees of public funds by the Colombo Dockyard Ltd.
De facto Chief Justice Mohan Pieris
“This is a formal complaint of a criminal offence of Corruption, causing a colossal loss of government revenue of over 619 million rupees, committed by the person now holding the Office of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, Mr Mohan Pieris.” says the complainant Nagananda Kodituwakku.
It is alleged that Mohan Pieris as the AG deliberately deceived the Supreme Court and the Director General of Customs (DGC) and withdrew a case (SC/SLA/100/2009 filed against the Colombo Dockyard Ltd by the Director General of Custom on 30st August 2010, against the specific instructions given by the DGC to proceed with the Court action, considering the massive revenue loss incurred by the government. However the AG had defied the DGC’s instructions and withdrawn the case, permitting the Colombo Dockyard Ltd to evade penal sanctions under the Customs Law for wilful misappropriation of public funds collected for disposal of 21 marine crafts (manufactured with tax-free law material) sold unlawfully without the permission of the DGC.
In the complaint Mohan Pieris is accused that he held a conference at the AG’s office attended by the DGC before the case was withdrawn, where he had informed the DGC that he would defend the case. It is further stated that having deliberately acted against the written instructions of the DGC and caused a huge loss of revenue, the AG, in order to cover-up his fraudulent act ‘hand-delivered’ a letter to the DGC on 31st Aug 2010, with a false date printed in it to read as 26th August 2010.Read More
