Shavendra Silva sends letter of demand to Wimal over ‘defamatory remarks’

Chief of Defence Staff, General Shavendra Silva has sent a letter of demand to MP Wimal Weerawansa alleging the parliamentarian of bringing him into disrepute.

General Silva says MP Weerawansa, during a recent book launch, has made ‘defamatory remarks’, accusing him being complicit in a conspiracy to overthrow the government.

Weerawansa is said to have made the accusations in question during the launch of his book “Nine; The Hidden Story” in April.

The book launch also came under strong criticism by US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Julie Chung, who denounced the parliamentarian’s claims that the United States was part of a regime change conspiracy during the ‘Aragalaya’ anti-government protests last year.

Chung, expressing her disappointment, said MP Weerawansa had made “baseless” allegations and spread “outright lies” in a book that should be labelled “fiction”.

At the book launch, MP Weerawansa had made claims about a conspiracy, purportedly hatched with the complicity of the United States, to topple the government of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in order to form an interim government, and of a ‘suspicious’ meeting held in India on July 07, 2022, at which General Silva was in attendance.

Later, the Defence Ministry issued a clarification, stressing that the gathering was in fact Deputy National Security Advisor Level Meeting of the Colombo Security Conclave – a security conference organized between friendly countries in the South Indian Ocean Region. The ministry said General Silva attended had participated in the meeting as a representative of Sri Lanka, under the directives and approval of the former president.