The Court of Appeal today issued an interim order preventing the summoning of former Attorney General Dappula de Livera to the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID).
The Court also issued an order preventing the authorities from recording a statement from Dappula de Livera pertaining to activities during his tenure as Attorney General.
The interim order was issued after former Attorney General Dappula de Livera filed a petition before the Court of Appeal today over the TID summoning him to record a statement.
The TID issued summons to the former Attorney General on 19th and 21st April 2023 to record a statement he had made with regard to the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, days before his retirement.
On the directives of Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, the TID issued the summons to Dappula de Livera to record a statement over his earlier claims that “There was a Grand Conspiracy with regard to the 2019 April Attacks.”
However, the former Attorney General did not report to the TID as summoned, while his lawyer submitted a seven-page objection letter on his behalf.
Meanwhile, the Colombo Magistrate’s Court today announced it will not issue an order related to the arrest of State Minister of Tourism Diana Gamage on the offences committed under the Immigration and Emigration Act.
Colombo Chief Magistrate Prasanna Alwis stated that the order will not be issued as the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has powers under the law to arrest the State Minister.
The lawyers representing the petitioners, including civil activist Oshala Herath, had pointed out during an earlier hearing that even though sufficient evidence has been provided the CID had failed to apprehend the State Minister.
Thereby, a request was made from the court to issue an order prompting the CID to arrest State Minister Diana Gamage for breaching the Immigration and Emigration Act.
Issuing the verdict on the matter today, the Court stated that the investigation officers are vested with powers under the law to arrest the State Minister with regard to the relevant offence and hence, it was not required for the court to issue a further order on the matter.
The court’s decision comes after the writ petition filed against State Minister of Tourism Diana Gamage challenging her citizenship and right to hold a Parliamentary seat was taken up for consideration today.
Also, the Court of Appeal today issued an interim order preventing the naming of Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Deshabandu Tennakoon as a suspect in the Galle Face protest incident.
The court order was issued preventing the implementation of the letter sent by the Attorney General (AG) to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) asking to name Senior DIG Deshabandu Tennakoon as a suspect in the case pertaining to the attack on protesters at the ‘GotaGoGama’ protest site on 09th May 2022.
The case was taken up for hearing before the Appellate Court bench comprising the President of the Court of Appeal, Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne and Justice A. Marikkar. (NewsWire)