State Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe says that not only the President, but even he feels that officers of the navy should not be overly inconvenienced by dragging them to courts and that he believes a certain process should be followed with regard to implementing the law.

“But that is just the opinion of the President and me. We only established the good governance mechanism in the country. We didn’t get an opportunity to change the country’s officials or to change heads,” he said.

What we are saying is that there will be no political interference, Senasinghe said.  

The State Minister of International Trade was responding to question from journalists regarding the comments made by President Maithripala Sirisena during an event yesterday (12).

 The President had said: “As the President, as well as the Defence Minister, I could not agree with the manner in which the former Defence Secretary and three former Navy Commanders were produced before court.” 

Senasinghe said that actually it was the previous government which started to file cases against tri-forces personnel and not the incumbent government. “It was Mahinda Rajapaksa and G.L. Peiris, and not us.”

“Our government has not filed cases against anyone so far.”

He further stated that people can have various opinions but the law is being implemented in the country. 

“We are not saying this is completely perfect. But we can say that there is no political interference,” he added.