President released from petitions filed by Easter attack victims
March 1, 2023 03:37 pm
The Colombo District Court has ordered that President Ranil Wickremesinghe be released from the 108 cases filed by the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks.
The order was issued by Colombo District Judge Mahesha de Silva when the case was taken up in court this morning (01 March).
During a previous hearing of the case, Wickremesinghe’s lawyers argued that although their client was named as a respondent in these cases, it was not possible to maintain the charges levelled against him, as per Article 35 of the Constitution, on account of the fact that he is currently serving as the Executive President of Sri Lanka.
A total of 108 cases were filed before the Colombo District Court against a group of individuals including former President Maithripala Sirisena and then Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe.
On 12 January, the Supreme Court found the former President, along with former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, former IGP Pujith Jayasundara, former National Intelligence Chief Sisira Mendis and former Chief of State Intelligence Nilantha Jayawardena in violation of the Fundamental Rights of petitioners, by failing to take action to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks despite receiving sufficient intelligence information.
