The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) stated that the Supreme Court's (SC) recent ruling that former President and Defence Minister and incumbent SLFP Chairman and Opposition MP Maithripala Sirisena has violated fundamental human rights, by not preventing the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 21 April 2019, has no effect on the latter’s leadership of the party.
Speaking to The Morning, SLFP Senior Vice President Prof. Rohana Luxman Piyadasa said: “This judgment has been given only in relation to accountability. There will be no issue when the relevant sum of compensation that was ordered by the SC is paid. Therefore, we do not think that he should resign from the leadership of the party or make any other change because of this judgement. No one in the party has said that there should be such a change either.”
On 12 January, the SC held that Sirisena, former Defence Ministry Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara, former State Intelligence Service Director, Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) Nilantha Jayawardena, and former Chief of National Intelligence DIG (Retd.) Sisira Mendis have violated fundamental human rights by not preventing the Easter Sunday terror attacks, and therefore, ordered them to pay compensation to the victims, with Sirisena being ordered to pay Rs. 100 million.
Following the SC judgement, the “Sarwapaakshika Aragalakaruwo”, which is a group that was part of the “aragalaya” (the people's struggle) had handed over a complaint to IGP Chandana D. Wickramararne, requesting the arrest of Sirisena and the others. Claiming that Sirisena had deliberately neglected his responsibilities and the oath to protect the people as the President by not preventing the terror attacks, Sarwapaakshika Aragalakaruwo General Secretary Samith Bodhipaksha said that it is not at all appropriate for Sirisena to continue to function as a MP.
It was also reported that following the SC’s judgement, a crisis has arisen within the Freedom People’s Alliance – which was formed between the SLFP and several other political groups such as the Freedom National Congress and includes Opposition MPs Prof. G.L. Peiris and Dullas Alahapperuma, the Supreme Lanka Coalition, which includes Opposition MPs Wimal Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpila, and an independent group of MPs led by Anura Priydarshana Yapa. Against that backdrop, the SLFP has now decided to contest the upcoming Local Government (LG) election under the hand symbol, except for in a few LG bodies, where they will contest under the Freedom People’s Alliance’s helicopter symbol.