Court rejects objections to hear AG's petition against court ruling on Pujith, Hemasiri

The Colombo High Court today (Aug 1) rejected objections filed against hearing the Attorney General (AG)’s appeal on a court ruling to release two top security officials over the Easter Sunday attacks on bail.

The AG had appealed against Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne’s decision to grant bail to inspector general of police Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando after they were arrested over the failure to prevent the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks.

High Court judge Vikum Kaluarachchi, while issuing the ruling, said that the Chief Magistrate had granted bail by disregarding the murder charges filed against the suspects under Section 296 of the Penal Code.

The judge also said that the Chief Magistrate did not have the authority to release suspects accused of murder charges on bail, and that bail for such suspects could only be issued by the High Court.

However, the court announced that any other objections against the AG’s appeal petition could be raised before August 30, and that petition would be taken up for hearing on September 6.

During today’s hearing, President’s Counsel Anuja Premaratna appearing for former Defence Secretary Fernando said that the chief magistrate had released his client on bail since there was no sufficient evidence to prove the murder charges against him.

PC Premaratne also told court that the AG had filed the appeal against the chief magistrate’s ruling with the sole intention of remanding his client although he had not purposely ignored the intelligence warnings issued over the attacks.

He also claimed that the AG has not provided advice to arrest certain individuals attached to the proscribe National Thowheed Jamath group when requested to do so in 2017, although the Terrorist Investigations Division had sent a reminder to the AG’s department over this matter in 2018 as well.

The PC also pointed out that the AG had however acted swiftly to arrest his client using a report submitted by the Criminal Investigations Department recently.

He further told court that State Intelligence Service chief Nilantha Jayawardena had not raised awareness of the imminent attacks during a security progress review meeting on July 9, although intelligence warnings had been issued on July 4.

Premaratne claimed that Jaywardena had not addressed the warnings even during a meeting on July 8 between the President and senior police officials.

He also argued that the AG had not mentioned a significant reason to challenge the chief magistrate’s ruling. PC Anura Maddegoda appearing for the IGP also expressed similar sentiments during the hearing.

However, Deputy Solicitor General Thusith Mudalige told court that an appeal could be filed against the magistrate’s ruling since it was not a final verdict.

DSG Mudalige had also said that statements could not be obtained from the accused prior to their arrest since they had been hospitalised at that time.

He argued that atleast the damage caused by the attacks could have been minimised if the accused had acted on the intelligence warnings.

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