State Minister of Urban Development, Waste Disposal and Community Cleanliness, Dr. Nalaka Godahewa said that the Government’s position is very clear that it has allowed the normal legal process to take place with regard to the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks and not to interfere with the judicial system.
“The President’s position is to let the judicial process take its course. At times, people will look at somebody and say this person has to be punished but the courts may not agree to it. For example, if you look at the court cases of former IGP Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, there was a lot of controversy that there was negligence on their part and that they must be punished. However, the court decided otherwise,” the State Minister told the Sunday Observer yesterday.
Dr. Godahewa said similarly, the Catholic Church is pointing fingers at various people directly and indirectly. However, we don’t know what the court will finally decide. If the Government gets involved and starts making statements, eventually the Government would face ridicule. That is why the Government has allowed the normal judicial process to take place.
He said the Government has also decided to release all the volumes of the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) which probed the Easter Sunday attacks, to Parliament. Certain volumes which were withheld earlier have also been handed over to Parliament. So, the information is now in the public domain. The information is also available to the legal authorities so that they will take action.
Asked on Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith recent expression of disappointment at the Government’s failure to ensure justice for the Easter Sunday attack victims, the State Minister said this discussion has been going on for a very long time.
The Archbishop keeps complaining that the Government is not taking any action. The Government’s position is that it has allowed the normal legal process to take place rather than interfere with the system.
He said, “When the Catholic Church says the Government should act, we must ask what action they are expecting. Do they want the Government to interfere? You can’t have the cake and eat it as well.
If one asks the Government to get involved in judicial matters, then you can’t say it should get involved only in this case and not others. The common understanding is that the Government should not get involved in the judicial process.”