President can’t believe charge against Mervyn

By Chris Kamalendran

President Mahinda Rajapaksa told a group of judges that he does not believe that Non-Cabinet Labour Minister Mervyn Silva was responsible for intimidating the Additional Magistrate of Mt. Lavinia, Dharshika Wimalasiri who is hearing the case of the minister’s son Malaka accused of assaulting and injuring an accountant.

President Rajapaksa, however, assured judges of maximum security and a speedy inquiry into the case of unidentified persons attempting to intimidate the Additional Magistriate by visiting her mother’s residence in Peliyagoda and telling her to convey a message to the magistrate to grant bail to Malaka.

The President gave the assurance to a five-member delegation of judges representing the Judicial Service Association (JSA) which met him on Thursday on a request from the President’s Office to discuss the issue of security. Other Government officials were also present at the meeting.

The Sunday Times learns that the President had told the judges that it was difficult to believe that Minister de Silva was responsible for sending a group of persons to the magistrate’s mother’s residence knowing that he would be implicated. The President had said instructions had been sent to the Police to take all possible action to detect the persons responsible for the incident.

In an unusual move Peliyagoda Police on Friday filed a B report in the Hulftsdorp Magistrate’s Court informing the court that investigations into the incident had started.

Usually B reports are filed only after evidence is gathered about an incident. Police told Additional Magistrate Udesh Ranatunga that three persons had called over at the magistrate’s mother’s residence and one of the persons dressed in a white shirt and sarong had wanted her to convey a message to her daughter requesting that bail be granted to Malaka. On the following day another person had turned up and asked the mother whether the message had been conveyed.

The meeting between the members of the JSA and the President came after the Association’s Secretary Kandy District Judge Nissanka Bandula Karunaratna issued a statement condemning the intimidation of the Additional Magistrate. The Association called for strong action against the persons responsible for the intimidation.

The statement said that judges would not allow any person to act above the law and would not allow any person who attempts to interfere with the independence of the judiciary escape the laws of the country. Meanwhile the Bar Association of Sri Lanka in a statement said it was shocked to hear the alleged intimidation of Ms. Wimalasiri by a gang of thugs demanding a suspect remanded to custody be released on bail.