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Sirisena has drawn public attention after his comments to media over the Easter attack last month.
Sirisena, who was asked by the country’s Supreme Court to pay 100 million Sri Lanka rupees for the Easter attack victims for his failure to prevent the carnage, is a legislator now and has been leading center-left Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
Islamist suicide bombers targeted Catholics and foreigners in six simultaneous blasts on April 21, 2019, when Catholic people celebrated the Easter Sunday.
Sirisena was called by a Colombo court to make a statement on April 4 on his revelation. However, his legal team said he has already made the statement to the CID and there is no necessary to repeat the same statement.
The country’s state-owned Daily News reported that Maligakanda Magistrate Lochani Abeywickrema announced in open Court on April 4 that since it was revealed that the statement made by former President Maithripala Sirisena regarding the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks contains sensitive information, the related document will be kept as a confidential document in Court.
It also said that the Magistrate noted that until the investigators find out whether the facts contained in the statement are true or false, the B report presented to Court by the Criminal Investigation Department will have to be kept under the custody of the Court as a secret report.
STRONG EVIDENCE?
It is still not immediately clear if Sirisena has strong evidence for his latest claim.
Investigations into the attack have revealed there had been serious lapses in intelligence where law implementing agency neglected a series of warning by Indian intelligence agency.
Despite in depth probe by the local authorities, the investigators failed to identify the real motive and the mastermind of the attack so far.
In January 2023, Sirisena was ordered by the Supreme court to pay 100 million rupees as compensation to the victims for his negligence in preventing one of the country’s worst terror strikes despite having credible information of an imminent attack.
Sirisena left to Singapore five days before the attack. Later he accused the current President Ranil Wickremesinghe who was the then Prime Minister for the intelligence lapses because he dismantled military intelligence unit in the Eastern province.
Sri Lanka’s Catholic leadership had demanded an independent investigation into the attack and said the Easter carnage clearly supported former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to win the 2019 presidency.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has denied any involvement in the attack, which later led to anti-Muslim riots in some parts of the country.
Sirisena, in October 2018, claimed that there was a plot by Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to assassinate him and Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Sirisena’s claim was based on an arrest of an Indian and a telephone conversation. However, such a plot was not proven with evidence. (Colombo/April 6/2024)
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