{"id":134377,"date":"2023-05-15T15:08:36","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T22:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=134377"},"modified":"2023-05-15T15:08:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T22:08:36","slug":"president-orders-immediate-cid-probe-into-pastor-jeromes-controversial-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/05\/15\/president-orders-immediate-cid-probe-into-pastor-jeromes-controversial-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"President orders immediate CID probe into Pastor Jerome\u2019s controversial comments"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>President Ranil Wickremesinghe has ordered the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to launch an immediate investigation into the controversial statement made by Pastor Jerome Fernando, in a manner that harms religious harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Issuing that order, President Wickremesinghe has mentioned to the President\u2019s Advisor on National Security, Sagala Ratnayake that such irresponsible statements can create religious conflicts and affect the country\u2019s harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Accordingly, Mr. Sagala Ratnayake has informed the CID to launch an investigation into the matter, in accordance with the President\u2019s order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A video clip related to a sermon delivered by a pastor named Jerome Fernando in front of his congregation, which had been widely circulated on social media in recent days, had stirred much controversy within the country, due to allegations that it included derogatory statements related to Lord Buddha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, the New Buddhist Front (\u2018Nawa Bikshu Peramuna\u2019) has lodged a complaint with the CID in Colombo Fort against Pastor Jerome, seeking his immediate arrest and for legal action to be initiated against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) had also made a complaint before the CID today, seeking to strict legal action against the pastor in question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Adaderana President Ranil Wickremesinghe has ordered the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to launch an immediate investigation into the controversial statement made by Pastor Jerome Fernando, in a manner that harms religious harmony. Issuing that order, President Wickremesinghe has mentioned to the President\u2019s Advisor on National Security, Sagala Ratnayake that such irresponsible statements can create [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-law-order"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134377","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=134377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}