President dismisses claims of failure to notify Singapore govt. on extradition of Arjuna Mahendran

The Presidential Secretariat has dismissed claims that the Singaporean government had not been notified on the extradition of former Central bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran.

Issuing a special statement, the Presidential Secretariat said that the government via the Defence Secretary had taken measures to issue an official request to the Singaporean government on a diplomatic level on May 28, 2018.

The statement from the President's office said that the Singaporean Attorney General had responded to the request by sending a letter to the Sri Lankan government.

The details pertaining to the INTERPOL alerts issued on Mr. Mahendran on April 19 last year had also been submitted to the Singaporean government, the statement noted.

The statement further said that the claims made by a spokesman from the Singapore Foreign Affairs Ministry that Sri Lanka had failed to do so, cannot be considered as an official one.

Previously, a spokesperson for Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said authorities were cooperating with their Sri Lankan counterparts on the case since January.  However, Sri Lanka's request to return Mahendran "lacked certain information required under Singapore´s extradition laws" and the city-state had requested Colombo to provide them.

"To date, Singapore has not yet received the requested supporting information and documents," the spokesperson said adding "We look forward to receiving the requested information from Sri Lanka, so that we can consider the request further in accordance with our laws."

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