Murder charges to be filed against Pujith and Hemasiri

Former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and Police Chief Pujith Jayasundara are to be charged with murder over the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks, the Colombo High Court heard today (Sept 6).

Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) Dileepa Peiris told the court that the failure of the suspects to take heed of prior warnings of these attacks meant that they "conspired with the terrorists".

He made these remarks when the Attorney General (AG)'s revision petition against the Colombo chief magistrate's decision to grant bail to both accused individuals was taken up for hearing.

The AG charged both individuals under the Penal Code before they had been released by the Chief Magistrate who cited lack of evidence to support the murder charges levelled against them.

DSG Peiris informed court that 347 intelligence reports had been sent to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Secretaries of the Defence Ministry who had been in office since 2016.

Accordingly, he said that Jayasundara and Fernando had both received 131 and 97 reports each respectively from the State Intelligence Service (SIS), from the time they had assumed office.

The prosecutor also pointed out that both officials had failed to act upon warnings issued by means of reports and WhatsApp messages even on the day of the attacks.

He further said that SIS Director Nilantha Jayawardena, on April 04, had notified the accused of an impending terrorist attack. However, it had not been discussed during the Security Council meeting on April 9, DSG Peiris said.

Countering the arguments, President’s Counsel Anju Premaratne said that the SIS Director who was also present during the meeting on April 9 had not discussed the matter.

Representing former defence secretary Fernando, he argued that his client had not received any warnings except for the Indian intelligence warnings on April 4.

Mr. Premaratne further refuted the argument that his client had been sent 97 intelligence reports, by pointing out that Mr. Fernando had been in office only for 150 days.

Further, the President’s Counsel argued that the AG too had not responded to a request made by the Criminal Investigations Department seeking advice to ban the NTJ group in June 2017.

He observed that the defence secretary holds similar powers to other ministry secretaries, which also translates to working under the subject minister, and not being granted special powers to work independently.

Further hearing of the AG's revision petition has been fixed for September 19 and 20.  

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