Mahendran extradition Singaporean govt. yet to release official statement: PMD

President’s Media Division (PMD) issuing a statement yesterday clarified that the Singaporean Government had not released an official communique with regard to a statement said to have been made by President Maithripala Sirisena on the extradition of former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran.   

The statement said that recent news reports published by the Sri Lankan Media “quoting a statement purported to have been made by a spokesperson of the Singapore Foreign Ministry; were completely false”.   

According to these news reports Sri Lanka has not provided the documents that are required in terms of the extradition laws of Singapore, for requesting the extradition of an individual.   
President Maithripala Sirisena has during his recent visit to Singapore officially requested the assistance of Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to help extradite Arjuna Mahendran to Sri Lanka so that he could face charges brought against him with regard to the Central Bank bond scam.   

However, up to now no official statement has been received from Singapore over this matter, it said.   

As far back as May 28, 2018 the Sri Lankan government had made the request to extradite Mahendran on a diplomatic level. This was done officially through the office of the Defence Secretary. The Singaporean Foreign Affairs Ministry had informed our Defence Ministry Secretary and related divisions that our request has been sent to their Attorney General’s Department.   

The extradition law of Singapore operates under the Extradition Act of that country. The CID has stated to the Colombo Fort Magistrate by B report number 8266/2018 that Arjuna Mahendran had committed an offence similar to offence number 18 mentioned in the second chapter of the said Extradition Act.   Based on this report Interpol had issued a Red Warrant on 19/04/2018 which had been forwarded to the Singaporean government along with the request for the extradition of Mr. Mahendran.  During President Maithripala Sirisena’s official visit to Singapore recently, a request was made to the Singaporean Prime Minister to extradite Arjuna Mahendran to Sri Lanka.