Claiming that the Government is working to protect and even promote former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director and Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) Nilantha Jayawardena in an attempt to prevent the truth behind the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019 from being revealed, the Catholic Church alleged that President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Government are engaged in a “disgraceful” attempt to protect the criminals involved in the said terror attacks and cover up the conspiracy behind it.
Speaking at a media briefing held yesterday (9), National Catholic Social Communication Centre Director Rev. Cyril Gamini Fernando said: “Archbishop of Colombo, His Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith informed us to hold a media briefing and express the church’s view regarding Jayawardena’s appointment. It is reported that Jayawardena has been appointed as Acting SDIG – Administration following the retirement of SDIG Nandana Munasinghe. It is also reported that Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chandana D. Wickramaratne has made a recommendation to the National Police Commission through the Public Security Ministry Secretary to permanently appoint Jayawardena to that position.”
Claiming that Jayawardena had not taken steps to prevent the Easter Sunday terror attacks despite the ability to do so, he said that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) that investigated the said terror attacks had made a recommendation to the Attorney General (AG) against the former. Although the CoI has recommended that the AG initiate criminal proceedings against Jayawardena under suitable provisions of the Penal Code for his failure to prevent the terror attacks, he claimed, no such action has been taken so far.
“The final report of the CoI clearly mentions Jayawardena’s breach of responsibility. He has received intelligence information on 4, 5, and 21 April 2019 (before the occurrence of the terror attacks) regarding the possibility of a terror attack. The information he received on 5 April included all details such as the names of the perpetrators, their addresses, national identity card numbers, and the possible targets of the attackers.
“On 21 April 2019, the day of the attack, he received another piece of information at 8.27 a.m., which read that the attackers were likely to be active between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. on that day. Having received all this information, he failed to take steps to prevent it,” said Fernando.
Speaking further, he said that the final report of the CoI states that Jayawardena, during his testimony before the CoI, had admitted that he had deleted all the data related to national security and the Easter Sunday terror attacks on his computer. As he had not taken the necessary steps at the official level to prevent the terror attacks, Fernando said that the CoI, after studying all the available evidence, had stated that it was of the view that Jayawardena has a criminal responsibility towards the incident. Despite it being nearly four years since the terror attacks, he claimed, no action including disciplinary action at the Police Department level, at the very least, has been taken against Jayawardena.
“Instead of taking action against him, the Government gave him a high position as the SDIG in charge of Kandy. Going further, he was made a key witness in the cases against former Defence Ministry Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and former IGP Pujith Jayasundara over the said terror attacks. The crime he (Jayawardena) committed by not preventing the attack was set aside and he was made a key witness in the cases related to it.
“We know what happened in those cases too. Hemasiri Fernando and Jayasundara were released. That was because of the shortcomings of the relevant process pertaining to the filing of cases by the AG. Finally, Jayawardena was set aside and neither former President (Gotabaya Rajapaksa) nor incumbent President (Wickremesinghe) took action against him other than that,” claimed Gamini Fernando.
Referring to Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Opposition MP Mujibur Rahman’s query in Parliament regarding whether there was any preparation to appoint Jayawardena as the IGP, Fernando said that the Catholic Church strongly opposes both the relevant appointment and the preparations, if any, to appoint him as the IGP.
Although both Minister of Justice, Prisons Affairs and Constitutional Reforms President’s Counsel (PC) Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe and Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles were present in Parliament when Rahman raised that question, he claimed that they did not provide an answer. Fernando said that the Government’s failure to respond to the reports on Jayawardena confirms that all such reports are true.
“This appointment is an insult to the Police and a betrayal to the people who value justice and fairness, and a severe injustice and cause for contempt to the dead and their relatives, and to Catholic and Christian people in particular. We feel that the Government is protecting him and providing him with positions in order to prevent the truth from being revealed.
“Also, the current Government and Wickremesinghe are doing a disgraceful act of protecting criminals and hiding the conspiracy behind it. Due to these unfair, political, and illegal appointments, the country may become helpless before the international community and organisations, as such appointments will cause damage to the country’s image. The current Government and the President are fully responsible for this,” concluded Fernando.
Jayawardena – against whom criminal proceedings were recommended by the CoI which investigated the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019, and who later became a State witness in the cases pertaining to the same – had been promoted to the post of SDIG – Administration earlier this month. When contacted by The Morning, Police Headquarters stated that Jayawardena had been appointed as SDIG – Administration following the vacancy of the said post with the retirement of SDIG Munasinghe.
According to the CoI report, the first communication that SDIG Jayawardena made in writing after receiving intelligence information regarding a possible terror attack on 4 April 2019 was to then-Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis by a letter dated 7 April 2019. It is titled “Information of an alleged plan of attack” and the CoI, during his testimony before it, had queried why the term “alleged” was used when the foreign counterpart that sent him the intelligence information had not, and his response to this was: “They say, but we don’t know.”
The CoI had then concluded that he had not taken the said intelligence information seriously.
Meanwhile, when a case against Jayasundara was taken up before the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar, Jayawardena, the first witness in the case, was cross-examined by Attorney-at-Law Roshan Dehiwala who appeared on behalf of Jayasundara. When Jayawardena was questioned regarding whether he admitted that he had not provided specific intelligence information to the then-IGP about an attack during the period from 4-21 April 2019, he said: “Yes, I accept it. I did not provide specific intelligence information about an attack until the day before the attack, but I did provide information on the information I received on 4 April 2019, and the dry run conducted by the group led by National Thowheeth Jamaath Leader Zahran Hashim.”