Let the law take its course

• Almost all those cases were swept under the carpet and it was to annul those cases that the aforementioned commission was appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa

The fear expressed by several organisations of doctors to prescribe medicines and medical equipment to be purchased from private pharmacies after the arrest of Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital neurosurgeon  Dr. Maheshi Wijeratne does not seem to be justifiable. 

She was arrested not just for prescribing any medicine or medical equipment to be purchased from outside, but for allegedly making  patients  purchase a specific type of medical equipment from a particular private pharmacy at an allegedly  exorbitant price, using her position at the hospital. 

Any suspect is innocent until he/she is proven guilty in a court of law and so is Dr. Wijeratne. However, pressures exerted from outside the judicial process could lead to misunderstanding. Hence, there is a possibility that the fear expressed by  doctors  could be interpreted as a subtle effort to justify her alleged act.

This might happen in Sri Lanka where impunity is common and a norm. When former minister Keheliya Rambukwella was accused of being involved in purchasing substandard medicines by  opposition parties and trade unions of the health sector, the entire government of the day stood by him. The ruling party even defeated a no-confidence motion brought against minister Rambukwella over this allegation. 

This is a rare country where a high-level commission was appointed by the President to annul the court cases filed against his political allies. The commission, the “Presidential Commission on Political Victimisation” appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was meant not only to nullify those cases but also to deprive those who were responsible for initiating those cases of their civic rights. A motion was also presented in Parliament in order to implement the recommendations of the commission, but later it was abandoned in a context of local as well as international condemnation. 

Sri Lanka is being pressurised by the United Nations Human Rights Council since 2014 to introduce an international mechanism of accountability for the human rights violations which took place during the war. The reason for this move is always justified by the UNHRC on the grounds that the local judicial system is flawed, mainly due to the police and the Attorney General’s Department  being controlled by the political party in power. 

This argument is not totally unfounded. So many crimes have been reported for the past several decades with no perpetrators being indicted or found guilty, despite such perpetrators’ names have been in the public domain. Some cases against the suspects of high-profile crimes have been withdrawn by the Attorney General’s Department without any reason being given. 

For instance, former Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan who was in remand prison for five years and indicted in connection with the murder of former Parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham in 2005 was discharged and released after his case was withdrawn by the Attorney General’s Department in 2021. And the case was just dumped without initiating fresh investigations. 

So many politicians of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) which was later rechristened as Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) were arrested and indicted during the so-called Yahapalana Government mainly for corruption. Almost all those cases were swept under the carpet and it was to annul those cases that the aforementioned commission was appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. With that move being vetoed by  public opinion, the cases are resurfacing now, subsequent to the National People’s Power government coming to power. Accordingly, two former ministers were sentenced to imprisonment on May 29.

When legal actions are taken against people with political backing, they are in most cases described as political vendettas or political victimisation. Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), Ranga Dissanayake, warned  politicians in April that the abuse of the term “political victimisation” in respect of cases file by his commission will no longer be tolerated, and those who misuse the term will face strict legal action. Hence, it is important for all to let the law take its course.

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