A resident of Vavuniya gave a confidential statement before Colombo Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena on Monday in the Easter Sunday attacks case, Hiru News reported.
The statement was taken after the Criminal Investigation Department notified the court that it needed to record evidence from the individual, based on information contained in intelligence reports that had been held by the army intelligence unit at Vavunathivu and were subsequently taken into CID custody.
The statement ran for close to an hour. It was then sealed and deposited in the court’s safe, according to Hiru’s court reporter.
Where this fits
Vavunathivu, in the Batticaloa district, has featured in the Easter investigation before. The CID previously took custody of a notebook containing intelligence information belonging to the army camp there, and material recovered from that unit has driven several rounds of witness questioning.
Sealing a statement and lodging it with the court, rather than reading it into the record, is the procedure used where a witness’s safety or the integrity of a continuing investigation is at issue. Witness threats have been raised in the Easter proceedings previously.
The filing comes on the same day that the Colombo High Court fixed September 22 for the verdict in the Easter Sunday conspiracy trial, in which 25 accused face 23,270 charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court proceedings are a separate track — the continuing CID investigation into who enabled the 2019 bombings — and are distinct from the negligence convictions handed down against former officials on July 31.
Hiru did not name the Vavuniya resident, say what the intelligence reports contained, or report what the statement covered — all of which are consistent with a sealed filing. It also did not give a next date for the matter.
As of early Tuesday, no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report of Monday’s filing.
