Alleged abduction of Swiss embassy employee Mismatch of sequence of events and actual movements

• Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary brief Swiss ambassador
• Swiss ambassador presented with evidence
• Seeks cooperation from Swiss embassy for further investigation

In regards to the alleged abduction of a locally recruited employee of the Swiss embassy, the government yesterday presented Swiss ambassador Hanspeter Mock with evidence that the sequence of events and timeline of the alleged incident did not in any way correspond with the actual movements of the alleged victim on that date, as borne out by witness interviews and technical evidence, including Uber records, CCTV footage, telephone records and the GPS data, a statement said.   

The Foreign Relations Ministry, in a statement, said that the government took serious note of the alleged criminal incident concerning a locally recruited staff member of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo, on November 25, 2019, and immediately ordered a thorough investigation into this matter.  

Foreign Relations Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha, along with Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne and relevant officials met with the Ambassador for Switzerland in Sri Lanka and the Deputy Chief of Mission, and briefed them on the results of the investigation done by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Police.  

 “While the Embassy had not presented the alleged victim to be interviewed by the law enforcement officials despite their request to do so, based on the information provided by the Swiss Mission on November 29, 2019, the investigation was nevertheless conducted.   

In light of the incontrovertible evidence presented by the law enforcement authorities to the Swiss Mission, it was underlined that further investigations would need to be continued to ascertain the actual facts surrounding this allegation, for which the alleged victim will have to be interviewed by the law enforcement authorities. Given that the alleged victim had also claimed that she had sustained injuries during the alleged abduction, it was noted that she should be presented for a medical examination by a Judicial Medical Officer in Sri Lanka. The Embassy has been requested to cooperate fully with the Government to establish the veracity of the claims relating to this alleged incident,” the statement said.