{"id":96572,"date":"2019-12-18T15:56:31","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T22:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=96572"},"modified":"2019-12-18T15:56:52","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T22:56:52","slug":"swiss-in-diplomatic-offensive-to-save-face-says-top-lawyer-govt-urged-to-set-record-straight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/18\/swiss-in-diplomatic-offensive-to-save-face-says-top-lawyer-govt-urged-to-set-record-straight\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss in diplomatic offensive to save face, says top lawyer … govt. urged to set record straight"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\n\nDecember 18, 2019, 9:26 pm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"article_image\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

President\u2019s Counsel Manohara de Silva yesterday alleged that Switzerland was making a desperate attempt to shield its Ambassador in Colombo Hanspeter Mock in the wake of his abortive intervention on behalf of embassy staffer Garnia Bannister Francis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fort Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne on Monday (16) remanded Garnia till Dec 30 for falsely claiming that she had been abducted and molested by a group of persons who sought information regarding Inspector Nishantha Silva, who was given political asylum, at a lightning speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top constitutional lawyer said Garnia made the claim on Nov 25, within 24 hours after IP Silva accompanied by his wife and three children left for Switzerland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referring to a statement issued by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Dec 17, PC de Silva said that he was quite surprised by the Swiss accusation that Sri Lanka hadn\u2019t followed due process in respect of Garnia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having obstructed an investigation initiated in response to Ambassador Mock\u2019s complaint to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Nov 27, followed by a written complaint, the Swiss demanded that Sri Lanka should follow the national law and what they called international judicial standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to a query, de Silva said that he sincerely hoped the government set the record straight without delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pointing out that the Swiss issued its latest statement in the wake of Ambassador Mock meeting President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat on Dec 16, he said that Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs owed an explanation as what it meant by international judicial standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PC de Silva said that the Swiss had conveniently forgotten as to how they deliberately delayed the investigation after having claimed of Garnia\u2019s abduction on Nov 27-two days after the purported incident. The civil society activist alleged the Swiss strategy was meant to move Garnia out in an air ambulance without her being subject to immigration formalities. But, the CID thwarted that move by moving court, PC de Silva said, pointing out that the police were given access to her only on Dec 08-14 days after the alleged abduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The senior lawyer urged the Foreign Ministry to examine the situation closely as the Swiss strategy was meant to overwhelm Sri Lanka by what he called a diplomatic onslaught. Responding to another query, PC de Silva said that the Swiss statement called for what they described as a common and constructive way forward to resolve the security incident and Ambassador Mock reiterated their stand again in a face-to-face meeting with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PC de Silva said that the Swiss couldn\u2019t be expected to settle this matter out of court. According to him, the Swiss desperately tried to side-step established procedures even at the expense of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, there couldn\u2019t be an issue over Garnia\u2019s arrest as she was taken in by the police having received the Attorney General\u2019s approval following a lengthy statement recorded at the CID, the President\u2019s Counsel pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government allowed a Swiss diplomat and a lawyer to be present though they weren\u2019t allowed to intervene, PC Manohara said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government should examine whether the Swiss were making an effort to discourage Sri Lanka from raising them accommodating IP Silva in Swiss asylum programme while his actions were being questioned, PC de Silva said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PC de Silva said that the Swiss warning that in this high-profile case Sri Lanka\u2019s reputation as a country that upholds the rule of law was at stake should be challenged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign Secretary Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha and Defence Secretary Maj. Gen. Kamal Gunaratne on Dec 01 briefed Ambassador Mock of the findings. The probe proved beyond doubt that the claimed abduction never took place and the embassy employee even contradicted the place where the alleged incident took place, PC de Silva said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Silva urged the government to be vigilant as the Western powers obviously were hell-bent on undermining the new government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The obvious question is whether Ambassador Mock was deceived by the embassy worker or whether he knew the planned drama, PC de Silva said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy Island December 18, 2019, 9:26 pm President\u2019s Counsel Manohara de Silva yesterday alleged that Switzerland was making a desperate attempt to shield its Ambassador in Colombo Hanspeter Mock in the wake of his abortive intervention on behalf of embassy staffer Garnia Bannister Francis. Fort Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne on Monday (16) […]<\/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-96572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96572","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=96572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}