SRI LANKA Colombo, the bishops against the president for the extension of the Attorney General

The protest of the leaders of the Episcopal Conference: ‘Wickremesinghe is using the Easter massacres to leave in office an official who has not implemented the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry in 36 months. Claiming that the extension has been agreed with the Catholic Church is false, misleading and malicious.’

Colombo (Asia News) – The Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL) denies that the Catholic Church played any role in President Wickremesinghe’s decision to extend the mandate of State Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam. It was Wickremesinghe himself who declared that the reasons for extending the mandate of the official, now close to retirement, “should be asked of the bishops.”

“For the past 36 months, Rajaratnam has been unable to implement the recommendations contained in the final report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday attacks,” reads a note signed by the Bishop of Kurunegala, Harold Anthony Perera, and the auxiliary bishop of Colombo, JD Anthony, president and general secretary of the Episcopal Conference. We categorically state that the CBCSL has absolutely nothing to do with this extension. “We strongly condemn the president’s alleged intention to request an extension taking advantage of the Easter Sunday attacks.”

Some media articles had spread false rumors that the CBCSL president had met Wickremesinghe and agreed to the appointment of a three-member commission, consisting of the president’s secretary Saman Ekanayake, Sagala Rathnayake and attorney general Sanjay Rajaratnam, to debate the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday attacks. The articles stated that Rajaratnam would play a key role in this commission to coordinate with the CBCSL on future steps regarding the investigation of the attacks. Reconstruction that the Episcopal Conference denies. “There has never been any dialogue between the president of the CBCSL and the Attorney General. We are shocked by the idea that the president would take advantage of the Easter Sunday attacks to justify this extension. The insinuation that the CBCSL is responsible for the extension of the Attorney General’s mandate is false, misleading and malicious.