Sumanthiran calls for amending Constitution to bring in foreign judges

 

March 19, 2017, 12:00 pm 

 District TNA MP and party spokesperson M.A. Sumanthiran has urged the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government to introduce the required constitutional amendment to faciliate the participation of foreign judges in the proposed hybrid judicial mechanism to address accountability issues in accordance with Geneva Resolution 30/1.

MP Sumanthiran was responding to a media query at Veerasingham hall, Jaffna on Saturday.

Responding to Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera recent declaration that foreign judges in domestic judicial mechanism was contrary to the constitution, Sumanthiran said that the minister hadn’t taken that position before.

MP Sumanthiran in June last year revealed in Washington that there had been a tripartite agreement involving the yahapalana government, the US and the TNA in respect of inclusion of foreign judges in a domestic mechanism. The TNA heavyweight said that they dropped their longstanding demand for an exclusive international judicial process following agreement on hybrid setup as mentioned in Geneva Resolution 30/1 (SF)