Pledging allegiance to Gotabaya Rajapaksa last week, former Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe claimed he had prevented the former Defence Secretary’s arrest in the Avant Garde floating armoury case. In an explosive interview with the Sunday Observer, the Additional Solicitor General who handled the case hit back against the claim, exposing a four year old paper trail and new details about how the investigation was abruptly terminated by the AG’s department citing a lack of evidence of a crime
Ten days after the 2015 presidential election, the MV Mahanuwara was detained by Galle Harbour police, on suspicion of carrying illegal weapons. That was the beginning of a scandal involving ‘floating armouries’ owned and operated by a private security firm run by a former Major in the Sri Lanka Army.
After the ship was detained on January 18, 2015, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) quickly took over the investigation of the vessel docked at the Galle Harbour. MV Mahanuwara was registered to Avant Garde Maritime Services. Investigators found it was carrying more than 3000 automatic and semi-automatic weapons, and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition. None of the weapons had licences. The story that began with an unseaworthy vessel docked at the Galle Harbour, carrying a deadly haul of weapons on board, led to an investigation spanning years, the arrest of a second Avant Garde vessel, historic indictments against the owner of the private security firm and a political and legal firestorm that led to the interdiction of Sri Lanka’s Solicitor General, during this presidential election season.
Last week, former Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe threw his weight behind SLPP presidential hopeful Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s candidacy. He used the announcement to undermine and discredit investigations against Gotabaya Rajapaksa carried out by multiple law enforcement agencies during the tenure of the current Government. He went one step further. Rajapakshe claimed that as Justice Minister, he had actively involved himself in an investigation run by the Attorney General’s Department, in order to prevent Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s arrest in the Avant Garde floating armoury case.
In an interview with the Divaina newspaper, the former Justice Minister went much further, making references to meetings he had attended to discuss the Avant Garde case, and how he had convinced the Prime Minister and the President to ensure Gotabaya Rajapaksa was not arrested in connection with the investigation. Speaking in Parliament that same year, then Justice Minister Rajapakshe stoically defended Avant Garde Maritime Services and made the same assertion that he had prevented Rajapaksa’s arrest in the case. In his revelations last week, Rajapakshe, who is now backing the SLPP candidate in the presidential election, claimed that a “junior officer at the Attorney General’s Department” had submitted a report ordering the former Defence Secretary’s arrest. Rajapakshe claimed that the “junior officer” had ordered Rajapaksa’s arrest without the knowledge of the Attorney General, then Yuwanjana Wijayatilake.
The ‘junior officer’ Rajapakshe referred to, even then an Additional Solicitor General, broke his silence following the former Justice Minister’s claims last week, to debunk many of his assertions.
Early in 2015, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Wasantha Nawaratne Bandara, President’s Counsel at the Attorney General’s Department was given the Avant Garde MV Mahanuwara case file. The former ASG headed to Galle, together with CID officials and boarded the vessel.
“What I saw was a ship packed with military grade weapons and ammunition, with no one to guard it – anyone could have taken a weapon out of that ship at any time,” the former ASG told Sunday Observer in an interview this week. As Bandara PC and CID officials on board watched, foreign security personnel that the ASG described as “sea marshalls” boarded MV Mahanuwara, removed weapons from the ship and loaded them into a van. The van then drove out of the harbour and towards another jetty close by. There, ASG Bandara and shellshocked CID officials watched, as the sea marshalls boarded the boat with the weapons and took a boat out to meet a ship docked close to the harbour. The ship at sea lowered rope ladders for the men and a larger barge for the weapons. Once men and cargo were loaded, the vessel began to sail.
“It was a serious breach of security inside the harbour. I watched crimes being committed on this ship with my own eyes,” the former ASG told Sunday Observer. The CID, on the ASG’s instructions had photos and videos of the whole incident.
ASG Bandara’s report on the MV Mahanuwara submitted by April 2015, was damning. The ship had 20 containers on board packed with automatic firearms and live ammunition. Not one of them had a legally valid licence to be onboard the privately owned vessel, the former ASG realised in the course of his investigation. ASG Bandara sent every weapon for testing to the Government Analyst in order to get a detailed report of where each of the weapons were made and where they originated.
As Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, the current SLPP presidential candidate, authorised the lease of Government weapons to the private security firm. No cabinet approval was sought or obtained prior to the authorisation to hand out Sri Lankan Government Issue weapons to a private security firm.
ASG Bandara’s report was addressed to the Attorney General, through then Solicitor General Suhada Gamlath.
Gamlath, who was recently seen at a SLPP lawyers’ event while still holding office as chairman of a statutory authority, has also claimed that the Avant Garde investigation was “politically motivated.”
However, former ASG Bandara recalls SG Gamlath being extremely supportive of the investigation at the time. “When he first handed the file over to me, he said there seems to have been a massive fraud committed here,” Bandara PC recalled.
Findings of former ASG Bandara’s report show that by a letter dated September 18, 2012 Damayanthi Jayaratne Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Defence had granted approval for M/S Avant Garde Maritime Services to deploy a Floating Armoury off Sri Lanka in international waters. This is also the only authority that has been granted to Avant Garde Maritime Services to hold possession of the said numbers of weapons and ammunitions. However, contrary to this authority given by Jayaratne herself, she had issued a further letter to the Commander of Navy directing him to grant permission to the vessel Mahanuwara belonging to Avant Garde Maritime Services to exit/enter the port of Galle with weapons on board whenever such requirements are requested.
“Although this ship was meant to do business in international waters, it never left Galle harbor. It was not in a position as the condition of the ship was so dilapidated,” Bandara said.
In his report, ASG Bandara told the AG that if the findings of the report were found satisfactory, he was recommending that Nissanka Senadhipathi – Chairman Avant Garde Maritime Services, Manjula Kumara Yapa – Director Avant Garde Maritime Services, Gotabaya Rajapaksa – Secretary , Ministry of Defence, D.M.S. Jayaratne Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence and Major General Palitha Fernando (Rtd.) – Director Chairman Rakna Lanka Military Liaisons Officer as suspects to be arrested and produced before a magistrate. The report said the suspects had committed offences under Prevention of Terrorism Act and Fire Arms Ordinance for the Unauthorized Importation of Fire Arms to Sri Lanka, Possession of Fire Arms and ammunition without valid licenses, under the Fire Arms Ordinance and Explosives Act and Conspiracy, aiding and abetting to commit the above offences.
“I am of the view that a strong prima facie case has been established against the said five suspects, and that they should be indicted under the above discussed provisions of law. If you agree with my recommendation, as the first step I recommend, that the CID be directed to arrest and produce them before the magistrate,” the report recommended.
PC Bandara’s report further states that CID investigations have revealed that the ship (or the vessel) in question had been doing all her operations completely being docked at the Galle harbour and had never carried out any of its business transactions being deployed in the international waters, as per the authority granted.
Once the report was filed, ASG Bandara PC said he attended a meeting of the Cabinet Sub Committee on Corruption, where the case was discussed. Shortly before the meeting, Bandara told Sunday Observer, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe had walked up to him and drawn him to a corner.
“He told me that Senadhipathi was a friend of his and asked if there was anything that could be done to help him,” the former ASG revealed. “I told him serious crimes had been committed, and that there was nothing I could do,” he added. “But the Justice Minister never made any appeal on behalf of Gotabaya Rajapaksa,” Bandara PC revealed.
Subsequent to this meeting, where SG Gamlath was also present and opposing the investigation tooth and nail, the Attorney General opened three sub-files to review ASG Bandara’s report. The subfiles were handled by the then head of the criminal division, Additional Solicitor General Jayantha Jayasuriya, ASG Kapila Waidyaratne and ASG Sarath Jayamanne. All three senior prosecutors concurred with Bandara’s recommendations.
For reasons hitherto unknown, the Attorney General at the time terminated the investigation into MV Mahanuwara vessel, docked at the Galle Harbour.
On June 17, 2015 under the reference number CRI 58/2015 the Attorney General Yuwanjana Wijayatilake wrote to the IGP that he was of the “opinion that no offences under the Firearms Ordinance, Explosives Ordinance or the PTA are disclosed”. The AG informed the IGP that there was no necessity to pursue investigations.
Former ASG Bandara only knows that the file he submitted to the AG was never returned to him, even though it is the practice for files to go back to the original case officer even if the superior officer’s opinion differs from the report.
Seething about the former Justice Minister’s claims that he had sought to arrest the former Defence Secretary without approval from the Attorney General and the Solicitor General, former ASG Bandara said that Rajapakshe’s claims were damning, because they proved that he had interfered with an ongoing criminal investigation. “This is a serious misdemeanour, which should be severely dealt with under the law,” the former ASG told Sunday Observer.
The only role of the Justice Ministry in Attorney General’s Department was administrative, he explained. “The Department functions independently of the Ministry,” Bandara said.
The former ASG has called for a presidential commission to be set up to investigate Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s claims.
Ironically, four years later, the Attorney General indicted a group of people including Senadhipathi on the same charges in connection with a second Avant Garde Maritime Services vessel named MV Avant Garde. MV Avant Garde was sailing in international waters when it was apprehended in the high seas and brought back into Sri Lankan territory.
Most of the suspects named in the Bandara report in 2015 were also indicted in the new case filed at the Permanent High Court at Bar, with a list of some 7000 charges. The former Defence Secretary was never named as a suspect in that case.