Says did not speak with Cardinal after Commission report was submitted to him:
Then CID Director was transferred by the Police Commission:
Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a statement yesterday rejected the allegations made by Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith against him at an event held to mark the fifth anniversary of the Easter Sunday attacks.
The former President said that he had not spoken with the Cardinal over the phone after the Presidential Commission report was submitted to him.
“I categorically state that I did not speak to the Cardinal over the phone after the Presidential Commission report was submitted to me. Rajapaksa said he has never told Cardinal that the recommendations of the Presidential Commission could not be implemented because that would entail the arrest of people and even the banning of organisations allied with him.
He said that the Muslim community in general did not vote for him or support his candidacy at the Presidential election. “It is a well-known fact that the Muslim community in general did not vote for me or support my candidacy at the Presidential Election, so I cannot possibly have had any allies in any organisation that would need to be banned over complicity in the Easter Sunday attacks”, the statement said.
Exerpts from the statement: As for the second allegation, the report of the Presidential Commission was handed over to me on February 1, 2021. Having studied it myself and referred it to the Attorney General, it was handed over to the Speaker on February 23, 2021 and by March 1, 2021 copies had been given to the Venerable Mahanayaka Theras, the Cardinal and the Catholic Bishops. There was no delay in handing over the report to the Cardinal.
After the Presidential Commission of Inquiry submitted its report, I appointed a six-member Cabinet Sub-committee to prioritise and apportion to the relevant government departments and agencies the task of implementing the recommendations in the reports of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry and the Select Committee of Parliament on the Easter Sunday attacks.
Those familiar with public administration will know that the departments and agencies of the government cannot act without such instructions from the Cabinet.
In November 2019, the then Director of the CID was transferred by the Police Commission on the recommendation of the then IGP. That was by the Police Commission appointed under the 19th Amendment by the previous government.
A few weeks later this officer was interdicted by the Police Commission over an investigation into the leaked recordings of his telephone conversations with the then Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake regarding the influencing of judges in an ongoing High Court case. Several months later, he was remanded by the Courts over an investigation into the alleged fabrication of evidence in a criminal case concerning a former Police DIG.
Hence, I reject the allegation that I transferred the CID Director and even placed him in remand custody in order to sabotage the Easter Sunday investigation. This particular CID Director had been appointed to that office in 2017 and he continued to hold that position for over seven months after the Easter Sunday attacks.
In the months prior to the Easter Sunday attacks, it was the CID that investigated the Vavunativu murders, the vandalising of Buddha statues in Mawanella and the discovery of explosives in Wanathavilluwa involving the very same individuals and groups that perpetrated the Easter Sunday attacks. The Presidential Commission has observed that if the law enforcement authorities had been more vigilant, Zaharan and his group could have been apprehended before the Easter Sunday attacks took place. The failure to prevent the attack was a failure of the CID under that Director.
In his speech mentioned above, the Cardinal accused me of not having brought the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday bombings to justice. However, criminals have to be brought to justice not by politicians but by the police, the Attorney General’s Department and the Courts system working together. That process is now ongoing and according to the media, 93 persons are now facing legal proceedings in court for offences relating to those suicide bombings.
The Easter Sunday attacks were perpetrated by a group of Islamic extremists. The highest investigative arm of the then government, the CID, had for several months prior to the attacks, been investigating the activities of the very same individuals and groups that carried out the suicide bombings but failed to apprehend the terrorists before they struck.
The public should take good note of the fact that Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith either glosses over the responsibility of, or expressly absolves the two parties mentioned above, while continuing to relentlessly attack and criticise me over the Easter Sunday suicide bombings.
