29 January 2021 12:00 am
ASG requests PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks
By Yoshitha Perera
Although there is an extradition law in the country there could be certain inabilities to bring Easter Sunday attack suspects who are currently living abroad, with the existing legal provisions, a representative of the Attorney General’s (AG) Department said concluding the evidence recording on Wednesday.
The representative told the Commission that there were concerns whether the existing legal provisions were adequate to conduct successful investigations.
“When preparing the final report of the Commission we have to mainly consider such points which can be a problem in future to conduct fair investigations,” the representative said.
She said that the United States had already indicted three suspects in connection with April 21 attacks but the question arises as to whether there were adequate legal provisions in Sri Lanka’s legal system to deal with such a situation.
She requested the Commissioners to consider in making the final recommendations whether the existing legal provisions were adequate to prevent such a situation in the future.
The PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks officially concluded its proceedings on Wednesday and it will submit its report to the President on January 31.
The five-member Presidential Commission was appointed by a special gazette notification issued by former President Maithripala Sirisena on September 21, 2019. The Commission was headed by Supreme Court Judge Janak de Silva with Court of Appeal Judge Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne, former High Court Judge Bandula Atapattu, former Court of Appeal Judge Sunil Rajapakshe and former Justice Ministry’s Secretary Mangalika Adhikari.
The Commission which met for 214 days has conducted hearings of 457 witnesses on 640 occasions upto Tuesday night. Former CID Director Shani Abeysekara provided evidence before the Commission as the final witness.