Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith yesterday commenced submissions in the Supreme Court on the twelve Fundamental Rights petitions filed over the Easter Sunday attacks.
President’s Counsel Shammil Perera appearing for the Archbishop of Colombo stated that his client can be identified as the aggrieved party by the attacks where several people were killed and injured at Kochchikade and Katuwapitiya Churches. Mr Perera referred to the Intelligence Reports received by SIS on April 4 and stated none of the Authorities had informed his client or the catholic church about the reports received. Had the information been passed on, these unfortunate incidents, could have been prevented.
These petitions are to be taken up for further argument today.
On a previous occasion, the Attorney General had informed the Supreme Court that he would no longer represent two respondents, former President Maithripala Sirisena since he does not hold such a position.
On October 2, 2019, Supreme Court decided to grant leave to proceed under Article 12(1) of the constitution against former President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, former IGP Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando.
