S. AKURUGODA Courtesy The Island

December 18, 2019, 7:04 pm

On 16th December 2019, soon after a face-to-face meeting of Swiss Ambassador Hanspeter Mock with Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) has issued a statement to the media criticising the lack of due process in the case against their local employee, who is detained (after a court ruling) for falsely claiming that she had been abducted and threatened.

The statement, as a whole, is trying to tell the world, indirectly, that the Sri Lanka authorities (including judiciary) are not following due procedures, not complying with national and international judicial standards, and not protecting the safety and rights of the accused. https://www.fdfa.admin.ch/eda/en/fdfa/fdfa/aktuell/news.html/content/eda/en/meta/news/2019/12/16/77584?pk_campaign=communique&pk_kwd=@swissmfa&fbclid=IwAR2aoF7BJJqHnw0L5JMabFrV-SUrAlYdVO6iFMr-yq9zk5DN8uMypkPm5i4

Meanwhile, addressing the heads of media institutions, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said the local staffer attached to the Swiss Embassy had not been abducted. He has alleged that the embassy employee hadn’t co-operated with the police during the investigation.

The entire country is now aware how the Swiss Embassy tried to take the Sri Lankan woman concerned to Switzerland, in an air ambulance, while denying the Sri Lankan police access to her. Since the employee is a Sri Lankan citizen, she does not come under diplomatic immunity. The Sri Lankan authorities had to get a court order to access the woman concerned, since the Embassy failed to provide the identity of the their so-called victim, although the embassy gave wide publicity, throughout the world, regarding the alleged abduction plot.

As per latest local media reports, the CID has uncovered the involvement of several other employees attached to the Swiss embassy based on mobile phone records of the detained local staffer.

The said Swiss statement said the FDFA and the Swiss Embassy in Colombo will continue to meet their responsibilities as an employer, and do everything in their power to assist the member of staff concerned.

Since several staff members of the Embassy are involved in this plot, as per the latest information, it is the responsibility of the Swiss Embassy, at least now, to meet its obligations and co-operate with the Sri Lankan authorities to exercise the rule of law in order to find out the actual culprits of the plot, and the real motive of the fabricators to tarnish the image of the elected President of the host country.

S. AKURUGODA