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Udayanga Weeratunga visits SL embassy in Tehran
In a strange turn of events, Sri Lanka’s former Ambassador to Russia Udayanga Weeratunga, whose name has been implicated in an arms deal controversy, has visited the Sri Lankan Embassy in Tehran with a request to certify a power-of-attorney copy in order to get some of his heavy baggage in the Colombo port to be cleared.
His visit to the Tehran embassy was confirmed by the new Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mahishini Colonne today during a weekly press briefing held at the Ministry premises.
“Former Ambassador Weeratunga had visited the Sri Lankan Embassy in Tehran, Iran on May 5 with a request for his copy of power-of-attorney to be certified and had provided an email address to the embassy officials to continue further communications on the matter,” she said.
However, his request had been declined on the condition that he returns his diplomatic passport to which he had replied via email on May 9, stating that he would not return the diplomatic passport.
Colonne stated despite his objection to return the passport, the Sri Lankan Immigration Department has already taken measures to cancel it with immediate effect and added that all the relevant Sri Lankan Missions have also been notified of the cancellation.
She stated they were awaiting an update from the Ukrainian government concerning the progress of the ongoing investigation against Weeratunga regarding his alleged supply of arms to 19 Ukrainian rebels, while he was serving as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Russia.
Furthermore, Colonne noted that Weeratunga’s passport could not be impounded, since the allegations against him have not been proven and therefore no basis existed upon which it could be implemented.
She however added that officials in Sri Lanka ‘want Mr. Weeratunga to return to Sri Lanka’ as he is implicated with several other ongoing investigations domestically as well, including the MiG-27 deal that is being probed by the Financial Fraud Investigation Department. (Lakna Paranamanna)
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