• Conviction in a FR case not considered a criminal offence and therefore, only promotions are affected, claims SSP Nihal Thalduwa  

In the wake of calls for the suspension of the service of Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) Nilantha Jayawardena, based on the recent Supreme Court (SC) judgement which ordered him to pay compensation to the victims of the Easter Sunday terror attacks and their families, the Police stated that such suspensions usually do not take place, and that there are several serving Police officers who have been ordered to pay compensation with regard to fundamental rights (FR) cases.

Delivering the judgement with regard to a total of 12 fundamental rights (FR) petitions filed by several parties, the SC, on 12 January 2023, held that Jayawardena, who was the Director of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) in 2019, and several others have violated fundamental human rights by not preventing the terror attacks. The SC also ordered him to pay a compensation sum of Rs. 75 million to the victims of the terror attacks and their families, and the Government to initiate a disciplinary inquiry against him.

As the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) which investigated the terror attacks had also recommended to the Attorney General (AG) to initiate criminal proceedings against Jayawardena under appropriate legal provisions, several parties, mainly the Catholic Church which represents the victims of the terror attacks and their families, had been urging the Government to take steps to suspend his service until the relevant legal proceedings into the matter are concluded.

The Daily Morning queried the Police Media Spokesman, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and Attorney-at-Law Nihal Thalduwa as to whether it is required to suspend the services of Police officers who are ordered to pay compensation with regard to FR cases, to which he said that there is no such need. 

“There are several Police officers who have been ordered to pay compensation in FR cases. There is no practice of them being suspended. Conviction in a FR case is not considered as a criminal offence.” 

However, he said that the conviction in a FR case would have an impact on the promotions of a particular Police officer. “There is an impact on their promotions when a Police officer is ordered to pay compensation with regard to a case of this nature.”

According to the CoI report, the first communication that Jayawardena had made in writing after receiving the intelligence information regarding a possible terror attack was to then-Chief of National Intelligence, DIG 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 queried as to 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, considering Jayawardena's evidence before it, had concluded that he had not taken the said intelligence information seriously.