Swiss embassy caught on the wrong foot?

Colombo, December 1 (newsin.asia): The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said in a press release on Sunday that there is clear evidence” that the sequence of events and the timeline of the alleged abduction” of a Swiss embassy staffer, as formally presented by the Swiss Mission on behalf of the alleged victim to the police, did not in any way correspond with the actual movements of the alleged victim on that date.

That was borne out by witness interviews and technical evidence, including Uber records, CCTV footage, telephone records and the GPS data,” the press release said.

In the light of the incontrovertible evidence presented by the law enforcement authorities to the Swiss Mission, it is underlined that investigations will need to be continued to ascertain the actual facts surrounding this allegation.”

For this, the alleged victim will have to be interviewed by the law enforcement authorities,” the release said.

Further: Given that the alleged victim had also claimed that she had sustained injuries during the alleged abduction, it was noted that she should be presented for a medical examination by a Judicial Medical Officer in Sri Lanka.”

The Embassy has been requested to cooperate fully with the Government of Sri Lanka to establish the veracity of the claims relating to this alleged incident.”

But till date, the embassy has not allowed the police to interview her saying that she is too traumatized to make a statement.

Alleged Abduction

Sunday Times said that the incident is said to have occurred just after 5 p.m. on Monday (November 25) along R.G. Senanayake Mawatha (former Gregory’s Road) where the Swiss embassy is located. In the vicinity are the Japanese embassy and the Australian high commission.

The female Sri Lankan embassy staffer was an aide to the lady Migration Officer in the Swiss embassy, a national of that country. For reasons of security and for their safety their names are not being divulged.

When the local staffer had walked out of a school nearby, to her office premises, five persons in a white Toyota Corolla car had followed her, bundled her into the vehicle and driven away. She had been released only two hours later.

She complained that she was sexually molested. The abductors had bound her and covered her eyes with a black cloth,” said a diplomatic source familiar with the incident.

She was questioned on why she helped her embassy in the issue of a visa to CID Chief Inspector Nishantha de Silva.” She was questioned on this repeatedly. At times, they threatened her of consequences she would have to face if an answer was not given, said the source.

Some Colombo papers reported that the Swiss embassy has asked for government’s permission to take the employee away to Switzerland for she feared that Sri Lanka will not be safe for her any more.

Chief Inspector Nishantha de Silva, who was head of the Organized Crimes Investigation Division of the CID, fled Sri Lanka on November 24 with his family, clearly with the connivance of the Swiss embassy.

The government has learnt that he has sought asylum in Switzerland. It alleged that Nishantha de Silva had been used by the powers-that-be in the then government and some Western embassies were motivating the officer to pursue cases against some people including those in the forces and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and fix them.

After Nishantha de Silva’s escape, the government alerted the authrorities to watch out for over 700 investigating officers who might try to flee the country.