Abduction, detention of Swiss Embassy employee Foreign Ministry assures fullest cooperation to probe incident

• SL’s ambassador will be meeting with the Swiss authorities to provide an update on the investigation, shortly

By JAMILA HUSAIN   

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry has called for the fullest cooperation of the Embassy of Switzerland in Colombo to conduct a probe into the alleged illegal detention of an employee from the Swiss Embassy earlier this week.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said it had taken serious note of the alleged criminal incident concerning a locally recruited staff member of the Embassy of Switzerland in Colombo last Monday and on being informed of the alleged incident on Wednesday, the Police had taken immediate action to commence an investigation into the matter.  “In order to enable the relevant authorities to conduct the investigation smoothly and according to established procedure, the fullest cooperation of the Embassy of Switzerland has been requested,” the Foreign Ministry said.  Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Germany who is concurrently accredited to Switzerland, Karunasena Hettiarachchi will be meeting with the Swiss authorities to provide an update on the investigation, shortly, the Foreign Ministry added.   

“The Government of Sri Lanka takes this opportunity to reaffirm unequivocally its commitment to give effect to the obligations undertaken as a State Party to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961), to facilitate the smooth functioning of diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka,” the Ministry said. The Daily Mirror learns that soon after strong concerns were raised by the Swiss Ambassador in Colombo, to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena on Wednesday, the CID had met the Swiss Ambassador and requested further details.The employee who was abducted was also questioned by the CID, and reports said a sketch of the abductor had been obtained.  The abduction had taken place in broad daylight somewhere in Colombo, outside the embassy last Monday, and the employee was allegedly asked for information about the embassy by the abductors.