Church questions genuineness of committee appointed to probe SIS and CNI

By Yohan Perera   

Questioning the motive behind the appointment of a committee headed by retired Judge A. N. J. Alwis to look into actions taken by the State Intelligence Service (SIS), Chief of National Intelligence (CNI), and other relevant authorities concerning prior intelligence received about the bomb attacks on April 21, 2019, the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka yesterday said it holds certain suspicions on it. 

  Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith told a briefing that the action of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe to appoint a fresh committee headed by retired judge A. N. J Alwis was suspicious.” We suspect that the former President appointed the committee headed by Ms. Alwis was to subject officers Shani Abeysekara and Ravi Seneviratne to political victimization,” Cardinal Ranjith said.   

“The Presidential commission which probed the Easter Sunday attacks took 18 months to carry out the probe while the Alwis committee took only three months for it. This shows that the committee was in a hurry to hand over the report to Mr. Wickremesinghe before the Presidential election. This committee did not allow any lawyer to cross-examine anyone. It was not open to the media. Therefore, we don’t see any transparency of the probe carried out by the Alwis committee,” he added.   

“Ms. Alwis is the sister of OIC Terrorist Investigation Division Prasanna Alwis. Prasanna Alwis was accused of manipulating the probe on the killing of Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickramatunga. Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne had lodged a complaint against Alwis with the IGP during that time. Therefore, there is a conflict of interest on the part of Ms. Alwis who headed the committee appointed by former President Wickremesinghe,” he also said.   

Further, the Cardinal said former minister Udaya Gammanpila was carrying out a contract to sabotage the probe on the Easter Sunday attacks.  Asked about the allegation made by Mr. Gammanpila that he had hidden the truth behind the Easter Sunday attacks, Cardinal Ranjith said the church decided not to reveal the findings of the Alwis committee as they were advised that the document was a secret.  Responding to a question, the Cardinal said the Presidential Commission report on the Easter Sunday attacks is more acceptable though that report also carried shortcomings.   

Also, he said the church trusts that the incumbent President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will carry out a proper probe on the Easter Sunday attacks. “We placed similar trust on former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa but he too failed,” the Cardinal said.