A four-member committee has been appointed by the Attorney General to examine the findings of the Batalanda Commission Report.
Senior Additional Solicitor General Rohantha Abeysuriya heads the committee, while it includes Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris, Senior State Counsel Jayani Wegodapola, and State Counsel Shakthi Jagodaarachchi.
Apart from examining the findings of the Batalanda Commission Report, the committee is also tasked with determining whether the evidence presented in the report is sufficient to initiate criminal prosecutions.
The committee has been appointed under the directive of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, after the Batalanda Commission Report was referred to the Attorney General for further study on 29 April.
The ‘Batalanda Commission Report’ was tabled in Parliament on 14 March by the Leader of the House, Minister Bimal Rathnayake.
The Batalanda Commission Report was brought to the spotlight once again, following former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s controversial interview with international media, Al Jazeera, this year.
At the time, responding to allegations of his involvement, former President Ranil Wickremesinghe rejected the findings of the Batalanda Commission report, claiming it was politically motivated.
What is the Batalanda Commission Report?
It concerns the alleged human rights violations, murders and disappearances that occurred during the 1988/90 period.
Upon assuming office as President, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga established the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on September 21, 1995, to investigate these incidents.
Known as the Batalanda Commission, it was tasked with examining the illegal detention, torture, assassination and disappearances of individuals at the Batalanda Housing Scheme.
After nearly three years of gathering evidence, the commission submitted its report to President Kumaratunga in 1998, but the recommendations of the Batalanda Commission Report were never implemented. (Newswire)