{"id":101481,"date":"2020-04-24T00:03:46","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T06:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101481"},"modified":"2020-04-23T15:32:08","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T22:32:08","slug":"lawyer-held-on-charges-of-conspiracy-aiding-and-abetting-easter-carnage-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/24\/lawyer-held-on-charges-of-conspiracy-aiding-and-abetting-easter-carnage-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawyer held on charges of conspiracy, aiding and abetting Easter carnage probe:"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"article_image\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Police headquarters said that that there was irrefutable evidence to link Attorney-at-Law, Hejaaz Hisbullah, who had been recently taken into custody by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide bombings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police spokesman Attorney-at-Law SP Jaliya Senaratne denied accusations the arrest had been made without sufficient evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suspect\u2019s father, Naina Hisbullah, recently filed a Habeas Corpus application against the arrest, made about a week before the first anniversary of the Easter Sunday attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Law enforcement authorities said that a group of civil society activists, too, recently issued a statement drawing the attention of the Chief Justice to Hisbullah\u2019s arrest over the alleged involvement with those responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SP Senaratne said that the suspect had been directly in contact with those responsible for the worst atrocity committed, since the successful conclusion of the war, over a decade ago. Among those who endorsed the statement was Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy, JVP-led Jathika Jana Balavegaya (JJB) National List nominee for the 2020 general election Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, civil society activists Ruki Fernando and Dr. Carmena Gunaratne, former Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka member Ambika Satkunanathan, and Prof. Maithriee Wickremesinghe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to criticism of the lawyer\u2019s arrest, SP Senaratne told The Island yesterday that Hisbullah had been taken in on charges of conspiracy and aiding and abetting in the Easter Sunday carnage, after comprehensive investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether the attorney-at-law had been involved with Riyad Bathiudeen, brother of former minister and Samagi Jana Balavegaya parliamentary polls candidate Rishard Bathiudeen, arrested by the CID also in connection with the Easter Sunday attacks, SP Senaratne said they weren\u2019t connected though arrested over the suicide attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Hisbullah and Bathiudeen were arrested, in Puttalam, on the night of April 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The near-simultaneous suicide attacks killed nearly 270, at six locations. The blasts wounded over 400 persons. Of the six locations, the Shangri-La Hotel, in Colombo, was targeted by two suicide bombers, including their leader Zahran Hashim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SP Senaratne said that Paniyudeen Mohammed Riyad Bathiudeen, 41, was taken in from No 11, 10th Cross Street, Maraiikar Mawatha, Puttalam, and Hisbullah from No 02, 3rd Cross Street, New Settlement Road, Puttalam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the CID, the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) is conducting inquiries into the Easter Sunday carnage. According to SP Senaratne, the Colombo Crime Division (CCD), too, was engaged in the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, about 120 persons had been taken into custody in connection with the attacks. Of them, about 40 were being held under Detention Orders and were under investigation by the CID, and about 80 by the TID, SP Senaratne said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government proscribed three organizations, including the National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) over the attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island Police headquarters said that that there was irrefutable evidence to link Attorney-at-Law, Hejaaz Hisbullah, who had been recently taken into custody by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide bombings. Police spokesman Attorney-at-Law SP Jaliya Senaratne denied accusations the arrest had been made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}