A new 90-day detention order has been issued against former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Major General (Retd.) Suresh Sallay, allowing investigators to continue questioning him over the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks.
Ada Derana, NewsFirst and Hiru News all reported the order on Tuesday. It was obtained after the previous 90-day period expired, NewsFirst said, and permits the Criminal Investigation Department to hold and interrogate him for a further three months.
Hiru News reported that the order was made under Section 9(1) of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act No. 48 of 1979, on the direction of the Minister of Defence. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake holds the defence portfolio.
He spent most of the last order in hospital
NewsFirst reported that Sallay spent 78 of the previous 90 days receiving treatment at the National Hospital in Colombo — meaning he was in a hospital bed for all but 12 days of the detention period that has just lapsed.
That figure matches the account his wife gave the President in a letter dated August 20. She said he was admitted to the National Hospital on June 7, moved to its Cardiology Unit on June 27, and later had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator fitted. She asked that he be transferred to remand custody under judicial supervision rather than held under a renewed detention order.
The order came despite a run of appeals
The renewal follows sustained pressure on the President not to sign it. Sallay’s mother wrote to the Presidential Secretariat on Monday asking that the detention not be extended, saying she did not want the investigation stopped but that detention should not substitute for evidence. The National Organizations Collective and the diaspora-based Global Sri Lankan Forum had made similar calls, and Ada Derana reported last week that the United Nations had received a public petition over his alleged mistreatment in custody.
Hiru News had reported that the second detention period was due to expire on August 28. The new order was issued three days ahead of that date.
Tuesday was also the day Sallay’s writ petition challenging his arrest and detention under the PTA was due to be called again before the Court of Appeal, before a bench of Court of Appeal President Justice Rohantha Abeysuriya and Justice Priyantha Fernando. None of the three reports says what happened in that case on Tuesday, or whether the fresh order was placed before the court.
Sallay has not been charged. The allegations against him remain under investigation and have not been tested at trial.
