Colombo, bishops against the president on the extension of the Attorney General

The protest from the leaders of the Episcopal Conference: "Wickremesinghe is using the Easter massacres to leave in his place an official who in 36 months has not implemented the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry. To claim that the extension is agreed with the Catholic Church is false , misleading and malicious."

Colombo (Asia News) - The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL) denies that the Catholic Church had any role in President Wickremesinghe's decision to extend the mandate of the State Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam. It was Wickremesinghe himself who declared that the reasons for the extension of the mandate of the official, now close to retirement, "had to be asked to the bishops".

“Over the past 36 months, Rajaratnam has been unable to implement the recommendations contained in the final report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday attacks – reads a note signed by the bishop of Kurunegala Harold Anthony Perera and the auxiliary bishop of Colombo J.D. Anthony, president and general secretary of the Episcopal Conference -. We categorically state that CBCSL has absolutely nothing to do with this extension. The President's reported intention to seek an extension by exploiting the Easter Sunday attacks is strongly condemned."

Some press reports had spread false rumors that the CBCSL president had met with Wickremesinghe and agreed to the appointment of a three-member commission, composed of Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake, Sagala Rathnayake and Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam, to discuss the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday attacks.

The articles stated that Rajaratnam would be playing a key role in this commission to coordinate with the CBCSL on future steps regarding the investigation into the attacks. Reconstruction that the Episcopal Conference denies. “There has never been any dialogue between the president of the CBCSL and the Attorney General. We are amazed by the idea that the president is using the Easter Sunday attacks to justify this extension. The suggestion that the CBCSL is responsible for the extension of the Attorney General's mandate is false, misleading and malicious.”