{"id":91792,"date":"2019-07-30T15:04:30","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T22:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=91792"},"modified":"2019-07-30T15:04:30","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T22:04:30","slug":"unp-mp-blames-ag-htota-port-deal-easter-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/07\/30\/unp-mp-blames-ag-htota-port-deal-easter-attacks\/","title":{"rendered":"UNP MP blames AG, H\u2019tota port deal Easter attacks:"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

UNP MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC, yesterday, said that the Attorney General\u2019s Department owed an explanation as to why it had sat on hardcore National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) member Zahran Hashim\u2019s file for nearly two years
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Nearly 270 perished in seven separate suicide blasts, and another 500 were wounded with Colombo Shangri-La targeted by two persons, including Zahran.
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Addressing the media at the Sri Lanka Foundation, the former Justice Minister said that the AG\u2019s Department couldn\u2019t remain silent in the wake of shocking revelations made before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) last Friday (July 26).
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Pointing out that the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) had sought AG\u2019s approval in June 2017 to take action against Hashim in terms of the ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), MP Rajapakse said the then AG Jayantha Jayasuriya, PC, had handed over Zahran\u2019s file to Deputy Solicitor General Azad Navavi and then to State Counsel Malik Aziz.
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Referring to the incumbent AG Dappula de Livera moving court against now suspended IGP Pujith Jayasundera and the then Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando over their failure to thwart Easter Sunday attacks, MP Rajapakse asked who would indict AG Department officers.
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When The Island pointed out that he was making use of revelations made before the PSC, which he had opposed, Rajapakse said he had raised objections for the sake of the intelligence officers.
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Claiming that the CID since the change of government in January 2015 had questioned about 322 intelligence services personnel, MP Rajapakse compared the inquiry undertaken by the PSC with the disastrous police raid on Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) in 2002.
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Responding to another query, Rajapakse expressed surprise at the Joint Opposition\u2019s strategy. Immediately after the Easter Sunday attacks, the JO demanded a PSC to probe the attacks. Subsequently, the JO had decided against participating in the process, the former Minister said.
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Rajapakse underscored the importance of ascertaining why those who were authorised to decide whether Zahran could be arrested as he posed a grave threat to the society had refrained from doing so.
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Rajapakse acknowledged that the PSC was quite useful though he had written a letter to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya requesting him not to constitute it.
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The PSC consists of Deputy Speaker Ananda Kumarasiri (Chairman), Ravi Karunanayake, Dr. Rajitha Senaratne, Rauff Hakeem, M.A. Sumanthiran, Dr. Jayampathy Wickremaratne, Ashu Marasinghe and Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa.
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Rajapakse said that the PSC was meant to clear All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) leader Rishad Bathiudeen, MP, in addition to saving Pujith Jayasundera and placing the blame on President Maithripala Sirisena.
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At the onset of his briefing Rajapakse alleged that western powers had undertaken a high profile destabilisation project here consequent to the incumbent government handing over the Hambantota port on a 99-year-lease to China. The former justice minister alleged that the Muslim community and the Islamic State were used by interested parties.
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Rajapakse said that he handed over a private member\u2019s bill to parliament yesterday (30) requesting parliament to annul the agreement with China on the basis of it having caused an unprecedented security crisis.
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By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island UNP MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC, yesterday, said that the Attorney General\u2019s Department owed an explanation as to why it had sat on hardcore National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) member Zahran Hashim\u2019s file for nearly two years Nearly 270 perished in seven separate suicide blasts, and another 500 were wounded with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91792","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=91792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}