Rajapaksa SC ruling : President avoids question using court case number error

November 22, 2023 at 2:33 PM

President Ranil Wickremesinghe today avoided answering questions posed on the Economic Bankruptcy ruling against the Rajapaksas due to an error in the court case number in the question submitted by Opposition Leader MP Sajith Premadasa.

Addressing the Parliament today, stating that he was responding to the Opposition Leader’s query, President Wickremesinghe replied to the question based on the case number given by the former, which was about a case on the supply of rations for the Trincomalee Prison.

Responding to the President, MP Sajith Premadasa acknowledged his mistake concerning the case number, stating that he would take responsibility for the mistake.

He, however, pointed out that even though there was a mistake with the case number, his question was written clearly mentioning the case details and the names of the Rajapaksas. 

“I have clearly raised a question on the Supreme Court’s ruling which held former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former Finance Ministers Mahinda Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa,  former Governors of the Central Bank W D Lakshman and Ajith Nivard Cabraal, former Secretary to the Treasury S R Attygala, former Secretary to the President P B Jayasundere, and Monetary Board member S S W Kumarasinghe responsible for the economic crisis faced by Sri Lanka as they had mishandled the economy and violated the fundamental rights of the people,” MP Premadasa said. 

Questioning if the President was incapable of reading, the Opposition Leader revealed instead of reading the facts, the President had spent time finding a mistake with the court case number.

“It is regrettable to see you disregarding the question by finding a technical fault with the case number and providing an explanation to just entertain the Parliament. I have no intention of disrespecting you, but it is beyond your intelligence,” he said. 

Pointing out that the President himself had chastised the decisions of the former Gotabaya Rajapaksa government in Parliament, the Opposition leader questioned why the President was now scrambling to protect the group. (NewsWire)