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SRILANKA-POLICE-UNREST
Police chief faces crimes against humanity charge over S.Lanka attacks
COLOMBO, July 1, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Sri Lanka’s police chief and a top
defence official should be tried for “grave crimes against humanity” over
their failure to prevent Easter bombings that killed 258, the state
prosecutor said Monday.
Dappula de Livera said Inspector-General of Police Pujith Jayasundara and
Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando failed to heed advance warnings of the
April 21 suicide bombings of a local jihadi group.
“The two officials should be brought before a magistrate for their
criminal negligence to prevent the April 21 attacks,” de Livera said in a
letter to the acting police chief.
“Their negligence amounts to what is known under international law to be
grave crimes against humanity.”
De Livera ordered acting police chief Chandana Wickramaratne to record
statements from both suspects and produce them before a magistrate without
delay.
The attorney general said a presidential commission of inquiry had found
“major lapses” by Fernando, who has since resigned from his position which
was directly under President Maithripala Sirisena.
While Fernando is the most senior defence official to face action,
Sirisena suspended police chief Jayasundara after he refused to step down
over the handling of the attacks.
Jayasundara and Fernando have testified before a parliamentary inquiry and
accused Sirisena of failing to follow established protocols in assessing
threats to national security.
Authorities have admitted that warnings sent by India of an impending
attack by a local group, the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), were ignored.
Three churches and three luxury hotels in Colombo were hit by suicide
bombers.
Some 45 foreign nationals were among the dead and 500 people were injured
in the attacks. The tourist hotspot has been under a state of emergency
since.
Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence Service (SIS) has also been criticised for
failing to act on the Indian warnings, but no-one from the state spy service
has been put under investigation.
Sirisena, who is also defence minister and law and order minister, has
faced allegations that he too could have prevented the attacks.
The president has objected to a parliamentary investigation into the
attacks and ordered police not to co-operate. The hearings, however, have
gone ahead.
Indian intelligence shared information about the targets — gleaned from a
jihadist in Indian custody — as early as April 4, more than two-and-a-half
weeks before the attacks.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1959 hrs