• The petitioner had named Chief Inspector Lalitha Dissanayake, ASP Rohan Premaratne, DIG W. Thilakaratne, IGP Chandana Wickramaratne State, Intelligence Service Major General Suresh Salley, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and the Attorney General as respondents

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda  

The Supreme Court yesterday listed the Fundamental Rights petition filed by Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando to be taken up for support on November 8.  Filing a Fundamental Rights petition through his lawyers, Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando is seeking an order preventing the CID from arresting him regarding a complaint made by Major General Suresh Salley.  

The petitioner states that there is a great likelihood of him being arrested if he appeared before the CID on the 3rd of November, 2021.

Meanwhile, Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando through his Lawyers had informed the CID that he would not appear before  CID on Wednesday (3) since he had sought dates from Supreme Court to support his Fundamental Rights petition. The petitioner had named Chief Inspector Lalitha Dissanayake, ASP Rohan Premaratne, DIG W. Thilakaratne, IGP Chandana Wickramaratne, Director of State Intelligence Service Major General Suresh Salley, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and the Attorney General as respondents.

The petitioner is also seeking a declaration that there is an imminent infringement of the fundamental rights guaranteed to him under Articles 12 (1), 13 (1) and 14(1) (a) of the Constitution.

This petition had been filed through Attorneys-At-Law, Namal Karunaratne and Udara Muhandiramge of Premier Legal Consultants. President's Counsel Rienzie Arsekularatne is to appear on behalf of the petitioner.
Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando states after the bomb explosions at St. Anthony’s Church, Kochchikade, St.Sebastian’s Church, Katuwapitya, Shangri-La Hotel Colombo, Kingsbury Hotel Colombo, Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo and the Zion Church in Batticoloa on 21.04.2019 (Easter Sunday) which claimed the lives of 269 persons both locals and foreigners, including several children and caused injuries to 596 persons, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, the 6th Respondent, along with several other Catholic Priests, including the Petitioner took a keen interest to ascertain those responsible for the said bomb explosions and bring justice to the victims.

The Petitioner states owing to the keen interest that he took in the above effort to bring justice to the victims and the kith and kin of the victims of the bomb blast, he eventually became the spokesperson of the Catholic Church with regard to the aforesaid bomb blast.

The Petitioner states during a webinar (via Zoom technology) organized by “Global Forum for Justice for Victims of Easter Sunday” on 23.10.2021, he questioned the failure on the part of the Police and the Intelligence Service that operated in Kattankudy to bring the members of the extremist group called Thowheed Jamath operating in that area who were, preaching extremism, committing atrocities against the Sufi Muslims and committing crimes. The petitioner said he did not refer in particular to the then Brigadier- Suresh Salley who was attached to the Directorate of Military Intelligence.

The Petitioner states that sequel to the said webinar, the Petitioner on 27.10.2021 received a notice issued by the CID, informing that he had defamed  Suresh Salley during the said webinar and requiring the Petitioner to present himself before the CID on 28.10.2021 at 10 a.m. for the purpose of questioning him. The Petitioner states he thereafter learned from various news broadcasts on  27.10.2021 that the CID had already reported facts to the Colombo Chief Magistrate's Court. The petitioner said Major General Suresh Salley had made a written complaint on 25th of October 2021 alleging, that his statement had caused prejudice to the National Security, caused prejudice to Suresh Salley.