The mother of former State Intelligence Service Director Major General (Retired) Suresh Sallay has written to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake asking him not to extend her son’s detention.
In the letter, sent to the Presidential Secretariat, she said Sallay had served the Sri Lanka Army for 37 years, giving the country years of his life that could have been spent with his family, Ada Derana reported.
She was explicit that she was not asking for the investigation to be halted. If there are allegations against her son, she said, the authorities should investigate them, examine whatever evidence exists and establish the truth. Her appeal, made as a mother, was that his detention not be extended while those investigations continue.
Investigations should rest on evidence, she said, and detention should not be used as a substitute for it. She asked that her son be allowed to face the law freely.
She also requested a meeting with the President, saying she sought no special privilege — only justice, humanity and a fair opportunity.
A third appeal before an August 28 deadline
The letter is the latest in a run of appeals to the President as Sallay’s second detention period runs down. His wife wrote on August 20 asking that the order not be extended and that he be moved to remand custody under judicial supervision, citing a heart condition for which an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator was fitted in June. Hiru News has reported that the second detention period expires on August 28.
The Global Sri Lankan Forum, a diaspora organisation, has made a similar request. On Sunday the National Organizations Collective told a Colombo press conference, held under the theme “Justice for Sallay — Dialogue Forum”, that the President should refrain from issuing a third detention order and should produce Sallay before a court, warning that the government would bear responsibility if he came to harm in custody, Ada Derana reported.
Sallay has been held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in connection with investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. The allegations against him remain under investigation and have not been tested in court.
An unresolved date
Ada Derana’s report says the letter reached the Presidential Secretariat “yesterday (24)” — an internal contradiction, since the report itself was published on the morning of Monday, August 24. The letter was therefore sent either on Sunday or earlier on Monday, and Ada Derana’s copy does not settle which.
The Presidential Secretariat had not responded publicly to the letter at the time of writing. On Monday afternoon no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report of the mother’s appeal, and Ada Derana did not give her name.
