Cannot accept that former Prez. was not informed of threats

The position that former President Maithripala was not informed about the prior warnings regarding the coordinated terror attack which occurred on April 21, 2019, cannot be accepted under any circumstances, former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando yesterday informed PCoI probing the Easter Sunday attacks.

Testifying before the Commission, Mr. Fernando said that former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Nilantha Jayawardena and President Sirisena had a friendly relationship and they usually exchanged seven, eight phone calls daily.

"Jayawardena personally called President and informed him of any important stuff during this period. I even asked Jayawardena to inform certain matters to the President which I could not directly convey to the President," he said.

Mr. Fernando also added that SIS had taken measures to submit a daily report to President Sirisena regarding intelligence information received from foreign countries.

"On several occasions, I tried to inform President Sirisena regarding intelligence information provided to me by the SIS, but all those occasions former President said he was informed by Jayawardena regarding that information. So, it was clear that Jayawardena had informed the President about every intelligence information," he said.  (Yoshitha Perera)