Dec 08, Washington, DC: The United States said it remains deeply concerned about actions surrounding the ongoing impeachment trial of Sri Lankan Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake.
Reiterating the statement issued by the US Embassy in Colombo Friday, the State Department Deputy Spokesperson Mark C. Toner urged the Sri Lankan government to guarantee due process, and to ensure that all investigations are conducted transparently and in accordance with the rule of law.
"These latest developments are part of a disturbing deterioration of democratic norms in Sri Lanka, including infringement on the independence of the judiciary. The United States, along with our partners in the international community, continues to urge Sri Lanka to uphold the rule of law and democratic governance and to continue to address outstanding accountability and reconciliation issues," Toner said in a statement.
The Chief Justice walked out of the PSC hearing Thursday saying that she has no faith in the process and the opposition members of the PSC followed her Friday saying that they too have no faith in the PSC and could not be a party to an unfair process.

Read More

Sri Lanka ruling alliance group to sign a petition to safeguard 13th Amendment

 
Dec 08, Colombo: Sri Lanka's ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) sources say that a group of ruling alliance political parties and several ministers have initiated a petition signing campaign against abolishing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
The petition highlighting the need of safeguarding the 13th Amendment to the Constitution is to be handed over to the President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Collecting of signatures to the petition commenced on December 07 at the parliament, sources said.
A discussion has been held at parliament in regard of the petition with the participation of a number of minority community and leftist political parties.
Sri Lanka Freedom Party Minister and former Chief Minister of Western Province Reginald Cooray also has participated in this meeting.
Sources further say that Sri Lanka Freedom Party Ministers Dr. Rajitha Senaratne and Dilan Perera have also expressed solidarity to this move but they have refrained from participating in the meeting due to parliamentary select committee procedure on impeachment against Chief Justice.

Read More

Three out of five charges against CJ proven

Leader of the House and member of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva says three out of five charges (1,4,5) against Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake have been proven at the PSC inquiry held on the impeachment. Speaking in parliament today, Minister De Silva had stated the CJ has been proven guilty of the following three charges against her: the issue concerning the Trillium property, failing to declare certain bank assets and liabilities and being biased against legal action initiated against her husband at the Magistrate's Court of Colombo in connection with the offences regarding acts of bribery and/or corruption under the Commission to Investigate into Allegations of Bribery or Corruption Act. He had also stated that proof of the three charges against the CJ is sufficient to remove her from the position while adding that nine other charges that were brought against her have been disregarded. A total of 14 charges were brought against the CJ and only five have been investigated by the PSC. Meanwhile, Minister Dilan Perera who is also a member of the PSC, speaking in parliament today had stated the CJ said she never withdrew from the Ceylinco case on her own and claimed she was surprised to know the case was removed from her. (LP)

Read More

FULL SPEECH OF THE BUDGET 2013

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his capacity as Finance and Planning Minister presented the budget for 2013 in Parliament on Thursday, November 08 2012. This is the 66th budget of Sri Lanka since independence and 8th budget presented by the President in his capacity as the Finance & Planning Minister.

Full speech of the Budget 2013

Read More

President emphasizes that all are equal before the Law

President Mahinda Rajapaksa declare opening several developments made to the Southern Expressway including the 'Canowin Arcade'- the newly built rest area at Welipenna emphasized that all are equal before the law, and justice should be meted out to anyone irrespective of their status.

The President said that when efforts are made in line with constitutional provisions to mete out justice to people accused of malpractices, the accused have made it a practice to blame the government in return. He said those who wanted corruption and malpractice to be rooted out are now protesting when the government is doing exactly what they wanted.

Speaking further the President said he had the utmost respect for the Judiciary and following the elimination of terrorism from the soil of this country anyone has the freedom to express their opinions and move about anywhere freely.  He recalled the hardships underwent by the people during the period they live under fear and suspicion.

The rest area 'Canowin Arcade' declared open by the President at Welipenne in the Expressway comprises rest rooms, restaurants, fuel stations, children's play area, supermarkets, service stations, ATM machines, vehicle park, first aid and clothing shops. The Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation has been entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining and managing the rest area.The rest areas on either side of the road have been constructed in an eco - friendly manner.

Before coming to Welipenna, the President also opened the entrance to the new Kottawa exchange which connects the Southern Expressway to the Outer Circular Expressway being built around the city of Colombo. This terminal will comprise five entries and eight exits. The Southern Expressway will be connected to Colombo-Kandy Expressway and Colombo-Katunayake Airport Expressway under construction via the Colombo Outer Circular Expressway. (niz)

Read More

Big boost for environment-friendly tourism

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa Thursday (06) launched a programme to provide pradeshiya sabhas with infrastructure facilities for garbage disposal in areas marked for tourism development.  The objective is to create environment-friendly tourism regions in the country.

At present Sri Lanka has six tourism regions – Bentota, Kalpitiya, Pasikuda in Batticaloa, Kuchchuweli in Trincomalee, Vakaray and Yala.  The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) has modernized tourism regions in the North and East to make them attractive to visitors, under the guidance of Minister Basil Rajapaksa after the end of a 30-year war.

The Minister Basil Rajapaksa presented tractors and trailers to the Bentota and Pasikuda Pradeshiya Sabhas.  Chairman, Bentota Pradeshiya Sabha, Gayan Sirimanne and Secretary, Valachchena Pradeshiya Sabha, N. Siyabdeen are seen here accepting the tractors and trailers.

Sri Lanka’s first environmental tourism region was begun in a 700 acre-area in Bentota in 1970.  It comprised seven hotels with 630 rooms. The second tourism region was started in Kalpitiya comprising 14 islets with an extent of 4000 acres.The Pasikuda tourism region, Batticaloa begun in 2009 comprises 14 hotels with 930 rooms built in a 156 acre-area. The Kuchchuweli tourism region, Trincomalee covers a 590 acre area. The extent of the Vakaray tourism region is 73 acres.  It is the Tourism Development Authority that undertook the well-planned development of these areas under Minister Basil Rajapaksa’s guidance.

By now tourist arrivals in the island is rapidly increasing and a number of programmes catering to their needs have been launched under infrastructure development.  Accordingly, the SLTDA has decided to provide tourism regions next year too with beach cleaning equipment, diving equipment and life saving equipment as well as give training  in life saving.   In addition the SLDTA has taken steps to build tourism shopping centres in the Bentota, Beruwala, Hikkaduwa, Kalutara, Negombo and Pasikuda under the minister’s guidance, according to Mihira Liyanarachchi, Director SLTDA Domestic Tourism Resorts.

 Child Development and Women’s Affairs Deputy Minister MLAM Hizbullah, Resettlement Deputy Minister Vinayagamurthi Muralidaran, SLFP Organiser Bentara-Elpitiya Geetha Kumarasinghe, SLTDA Chairman Bhashwara Gunawardena and Director Mihira Liyanarachi participated in the launching of the infrastructure development programme.

Read More

Impeachment resolution on the Sri Lanka Chief Justice submitted to Parliament

Sri Lanka Parliament is to allocate 10 day for the debate on the resolution on the Impeachment of  country's top judge. Parliament was told  that 10 days will be allocated for the debate on the resolution on the impeachment against the country's top Judge, submitted by the Parliamentary select committee on Saturday.

The Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) after having concluded its probe on the impeachment of  CJ submitted its report Saturday morning in the Parliament when it met for the last day in the year.

Parliament Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa, had appointed an 11-member select committee, seven of them from the ruling party, to investigate 14 charges against the Chief Justice Dr Shirani Bandaranayake ranging from not disclosing her wealth to professional misconduct.

The four opposition members on the impeachment committee withdrew from it on Friday citing injustice.

According to the Standing orders the Parliament has to wait for one month once the resolution is submitted to Parliament for any further action. Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa announced in Parliament that he was ready to allocate 10 days for a debate on the resolution after the legally required one month time.

The procedures of the PSC, in accordance with the Article 78 of the Standing orders of the Parliament  precludes taking any action after the resolution is submitted until the expiry of one month.

The Standing order 78 reads as follows.

*78A. (1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Standing Orders, where notice of

a resolution for the presentation of an address to the President for the removal of a Judge from

office is given to the Speaker in accordance with Article 107 of the Constitution, the Speaker

shall entertain such resolution and place it on the Order Paper of Parliament but such

resolution shall not be proceeded with until after the expiration of a period of one month from

the date on which the Select Committee appointed under paragraph (2) of this Order has

reported to Parliament.

(2) Where a resolution referred to the paragraph (1) of this Order is placed on the Order Paper

of Parliament, the Speaker shall appoint a Select Committee of Parliament consisting of not

less than seven members to investigate and report to Parliament on the allegations of

misbehaviour or incapacity set out in such resolution.

Meanwhile the chairman of the PSC Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa who himself is a lawyer told this edition that a comprehensive report has been submitted to Parliament on the motion.

Parliament will meet on January 8, 2013 and the end of the debate it will have to be passed with a simple majority. The ruling government has more than two third majority in the Parliament and it could easily be passed.

Read More

CJ explains why she walked out

Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake has walked out of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) in the face of hostile and biased conduct of the government members of the PS so as to ensure the dignity of the judiciary of Sri Lanka, a statement said.

The Chief Justice reiterated that she is innocent of the false charges made against her and is always willing to face any impartial tribunal in order to vindicate herself, a statement issued by Lawyers Collective, an umbrella organization of a numbers of lawyers’ associations and independent lawyers.

Describing the events that led the CJ’s decision to walk out of the PSC, Lawyers Collective stated as follows.  The PSC was requested as far back as November 20 to furnish the information required to reply the allegations. This information was never provided. When the PSC commenced sitting on November 23, 2012, her counsel had had requested that a list of witnesses and a list of documents relied upon in support of the allegations be made available.

It is common knowledge that even in a disciplinary inquiry in the public service or a trivial criminal case that a respondent or accused is furnished with a list of witnesses and documents so that they could prepare for the defence, it observed. The PSC failed to meet this basic requirement at any of its sitting. On Thursday, December 6 about 4pm, the PSC had handed over a bundle of documents consisting of approximately 1000 pages and required the chief justice to respond by 1.30 pm tomorrow, i.e. in less than 24 hours. It was obvious that a majority of the members of the PSC had no real intention to give the chief justice a fair hearing.

In addition to the above, at various stages of the proceedings of the PSC, two members hurled abuse at the Chief Justice and her lawyers and it became evident that these members had been mandated to ridicule the head of the judiciary and the legal profession. The Select Committee was requested numerous times to formulate the procedure that it intended to follow. There was no response to this request until today.

On Thursday, when this request was repeated, the Chairman of the PSC stated that no oral evidence would be led to establish the allegations and, consequently no opportunity would be given to cross examine such witnesses making the allegations. Instead it became evident today that the Chief Justice was expected to refute allegations that had not even been supported by evidence. Such an irregular and unlawful procedure would undermine every single independent judge in Sri Lanka. In almost all instances the same members of the PSC, who were in majority, overruled the submissions made on behalf of the Chief Justice without cogent reasons and often without any prior consultation with the other members.

It is for the above reasons that the Counsel for the CJ had requested to waive the secrecy provisions and sought an open and public inquiry and requested for independent observers to watch the proceedings, but this request was also refused by a majority of the PSC. In the face of the above no right thinking person could any longer continue to accept the legitimacy of a body steeped in partiality and hostility towards the head of the judiciary and in this background the chief justice and her counsel had no alternative but to withdraw from participating in the select committee.

The CJ reiterated that she is willing continue to face any impartial and lawful tribunal as is done in other commonwealth countries as was proposed in the draft constitution of August 2000 in order to vindicate herself and she will continue in her efforts to safeguard the independence of the judiciary, which is a heritage of the people of Sri Lanka, who alone are the sovereign of this country.


Source -D.Mirror

Read More

CJ asks Speaker to appoint impartial panel

Lawyers of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake in a letter to Speaker requested to postpone the impeachment hearing until an impartial panel is set up to probe her.

“The people of the Country (the Sovereign) have an inalienable right that their Chief Justice be given, a fair trial by an independent and impartial tribunal in keeping with the universally accepted rules and norms,” the letter signed by attorney K. Neelekandan said.

The full text of the letter sent to the Speaker by Attorneys-at-law Neelakandana and Neelakandan yesterday follows:

We are instructed by our Client, Hon. Dr. Shirani A. Bandaranayake.

As you are no doubt aware, our Client has withdrawn from the proceedings of the Select Committee and the reasons have been given.

We write to request you to defer any further action until an independent and impartial panel is appointed to inquire in to the allegations.

Our Client is absolutely innocent of the allegations and is convinced that she will be exonerated of any wrongdoing by an independent and impartial tribunal.

Our Client re-iterates that the charges are baseless and groundless and can easily be refuted. The issue is of broader and of wider relevance than our Client’s rights and affects the integrity and independence of the judiciary.

Thus in the interests of the judiciary and in the interests of the country and in the interests of our Client, we request that our Client be given the opportunity of vindicating herself before an independent and impartial tribunal.

The people of the Country (the Sovereign) have an inalienable right that their Chief Justice be given, a fair trial by an independent and impartial tribunal in keeping with the universally accepted rules and norms.

We annex herewith for your ready reference, the proposal contained in the draft Constitution of the year 2000 with regard to the procedure for removal of the Judges (Chief Justice).

Thus, we request you to defer from taking any further steps until an independent Committee is appointed to inquire into the matter.
 Source - Daily mirror

Read More

US urges transparency and due process

 

The United States today urged the Sri Lankan Government and the Parliamentary Select Committee investigating the Chief Justice ensure any investigation be conducted transparently, guarantee due process, and is conducted in accordance with the rule of law.

Issuing a statement the embassy in Colombo said that “…it remains very concerned about the state of the Sri Lankan judiciary and the impeachment process of the Chief Justice.

Read More

Lankan man executed in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi: A Sri Lanka man was executed on Thursday morning by firing squad in Abu Dhabi after being convicted of murdering an Emirati Engineer in Al Ain in 2002.

Sources confirmed that 36-year-old Alex Rohana, a Sri Lankan, was executed at 7am in the presence of a judge, general public prosecutor, Imam, doctor and police officials.

Rohana stabbed to death Mohammad Obaid Al Muhairi, a 39-year-old father of eight children.

Al Muhairi was the deputy head of the engineering section at Al Ain Municipality and Town Planning Department.

Rohana was sentenced to death by an Abu Dhabi court after being convicted on charges of murder, breaking into a house and having an illicit affair with a woman.

Blood parents of the victim refused to waive their rights or pardon the killer.

A day before his execution, Rohana told Gulf News over the phone from a cell in solitary confinement that he regretted what he did and that he accepted his destiny. Rohana also said that police officials and the prison warden had been very kind and supportive.

Rohana, a father of one daughter who worked for a company in Fujairah, was having an affair with a Sri Lankan housemaid during the time of the attack. On the night of the murder Rohana went to meet the woman at her sponsor’s house in Al Ain to spend the night with her in her room. While the couple was together, the Al Muhairi woke up for morning prayers and when he heard strange noises coming from the housemaid’s room he went to check. The housemaid reportedly denied that someone else was in her room. Rohana tried to run away but was caught by Al Muhairi, they fought and Rohana attacked Al Muhairi, stabbing him to death in his chest with a knife.

Rohana converted to Islam in 2008. He asked his friend on Wednesday not to inform his mother or daughter that he had been executed.

“I’m asking for forgiveness from all that others have endured because of me,” Rohana said. The executed man’s belongings were given to his friend.

Police released the body of Rohana to his relative and friend for burial. (gulfnews)

Read More