{"id":45895,"date":"2015-07-19T22:56:02","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T04:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=45895"},"modified":"2015-07-19T14:44:10","modified_gmt":"2015-07-19T21:44:10","slug":"president-sirisenas-move-to-get-sp-lakshman-cooray-released-has-rajapaksas-security-staff-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/07\/19\/president-sirisenas-move-to-get-sp-lakshman-cooray-released-has-rajapaksas-security-staff-worried\/","title":{"rendered":"President Sirisena\u2019s move to get SP Lakshman Cooray released has Rajapaksa\u2019s security staff worried"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cooray involved in LTTE suicide bombing of Jeyaraj Fernandopulle & 3 attempts on Rajapaksa\u2019s life<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Former President Rajapaksa\u2019s security team is on increased alert following information that President Maithripala Sirisena is actively trying to get the release of former Police Superintendent Lakshman Cooray who is in custody for allegedly conspiring\u00a0 in the suicide bombing \u00a0of Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle in 2008 and for helping the LTTE in three \u00a0unsuccessful assassination attempts on former President Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n

\"Jeyaraj_FinalMins\"<\/a><\/p>\n

President Sirisena has already ordered that Lakshman Cooray to be transferred from Boosa camp to Mahara camp.\u00a0 Cooray\u2019s adoptive father Saranelis Dayawansa is a politician from Polonnoruwa and close associate of President\u00a0 Sirisena.<\/p>\n

A source close to Mr. Rajapaksa said\u00a0 there is grave concern over the\u00a0 move because\u00a0 Cooray who worked in Jaffna had close contacts with suicide bombers and hard core LTTE operatives such as Siddeek and Pirabaran (who conspired the suicide attack on Gen. Fonseka).\u00a0 He had tried to infiltrate Rajapaksa\u2019s presidential security division but had failed only because a rival had complained to a senior official that Cooray was thoroughly incompetent.<\/p>\n

Security is very worried that if released Cooray might once again join hardcore terrorists who want to harm Mahinda Rajapaksa to prevent him from coming to power again,\u201d a Rajapaksa aide said. With large crowds wherever he goes, Rajapaksa\u2019s security is presenting many challenges, he added.<\/p>\n

Strangely, in Kurunegala where Rajapaksa is contesting and the Tamil population is only 1.2%, M.K. Shivajilingam a relative of Tiger supremo V. Prabhakaran is challenging the former president.\u00a0 He will be running as an independent candidate.<\/p>\n

Cooray\u2019s case is the first time a high ranking police officer has been charged \u00a0for allegedly aiding terrorists.\u00a0\u00a0 Information leading to his arrest was provided by\u00a0 two hardcore LTTE operatives arrested in \u00a0Wellawatta on August 6, 2009 who had in their possession two suicide jackets, a micro pistol and several other equipment. One of the two had returned from Malaysia\u00a0 a few days before the arrest and had Cooray had provided police protection from the Katunayake airport so he could avoid detection at army and police security posts along the way.<\/p>\n

The two had revealed that Cooray, who was in charge of Minister Fernandopulle\u2019s security, had received Rs. 20 million from the LTTE to transport a suicide cadre in his official government vehicle to Gampaha and for providing other assistance in planning the minister\u2019s assassination. \u00a0Investigators discovered that Cooray owned 15 vehicles at the time of his arrest, some of them registered under false names.<\/p>\n

Cooray also provided intelligence to Tiger cadres who were on suicide missions in Colombo giving detailed information about the movement of President Rajapaksa and top politicians, including Mr. Sirisena who was a cabinet minister at that time. However, it was Sirisena himself who had helped Cooray get appointed as a Superintendant of Police (SP).\u00a0 Cooray being married at the time did not meet the basic requirement that applicants be unmarried.\u00a0 When his claim of having the minimum educational requirement of a bachelor\u2019s degree (BA\/BSC) for the post of SP were found to be false, he had managed to avoid being dismissed from the police force thanks to Mr. Sirisena\u2019s intervention.<\/p>\n

Cooray\u2019s statements to police after his arrest led \u00a0to the recovery of a powerful 15 kilo claymore mine buried in a play ground in Badulla, where the President Rajapaksa\u2019s helicopter was to land and another bomb weighing five kilos on the Mahiyangana-Badulla road, where the President\u2019s vehicle convoy was to pass.<\/p>\n

Highways Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was attending a function celebrating the Sinhala and Tamil New Year at the Kanthi playground in the town of Weliveriya, in the Gampaha District when he along with 14 others were blown up by the LTTE suicide bomber.<\/p>\n

Cooray and two other LTTE cadres arrested along with him have been indicted on 31 counts for planning and carrying out the assassination.\u00a0\u00a0 He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and awaits trial. \u00a0In addition to his adoptive father, the LTTE\u2019s international lobby and Amnesty International have been trying to get Cooray released despite the seriousness of\u00a0 the criminal charges against him.<\/p>\n

With the help of Eelam supporters, Cooray had purchased a house in England and was planning to flee Sri Lanka at the time he was arrested in 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cooray involved in LTTE suicide bombing of Jeyaraj Fernandopulle & 3 attempts on Rajapaksa\u2019s life Former President Rajapaksa\u2019s security team is on increased alert following information that President Maithripala Sirisena is actively trying to get the release of former Police Superintendent Lakshman Cooray who is in custody for allegedly conspiring\u00a0 in the suicide bombing \u00a0of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45895","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=45895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}