The Patriotic National Movement has alleged that investigators and others supplied false information in order to keep former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Major General (Retd.) Suresh Sallay in detention.
Attorney-at-Law Sanjeeva Weerawickrama, a member of the movement, made the allegation at a press conference in Colombo on Tuesday, Ada Derana reported.
The claim centres on a witness statement recorded in France. Weerawickrama said Criminal Investigation Department Director Shani Abeysekara travelled to France, recorded a statement and told the court he had taken it from Azad Maulana — but did not go to the embassy to do so.
“At that time, there was no Sri Lankan Ambassador to France, as the post remained vacant,” he said. “However, a residence had been acquired on behalf of the Ambassador, and it was at that residence that the statement was recorded.”
Weerawickrama said court documents indicated in small print that the statement had been recorded at the ambassador’s residence, and questioned whether an officer could lawfully record a statement there and file it in court. “It was an illegal act,” he said. “It was an arbitrary action taken to continuously extend the detention order of retired Major General Suresh Sallay.”
He also alleged that the intervening petition filed by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith in connection with Sallay’s writ application contained false statements.
The state has already rejected the malice claim
The allegations run directly against submissions the Attorney General’s Department made to the Court of Appeal a day earlier.
Deputy Solicitor General Suharshi Herath told the court on Tuesday that claims of malice on Abeysekara’s part were baseless, Hiru News reported. She said the investigation was handed to the CID on the Inspector General’s orders during the tenure of former CID Director Mangala Dehideniya, before Abeysekara took up the post, and that a travel ban on Sallay had been obtained by Senior Superintendent Himesha Muthumala while she headed the division. Herath also said the Janak de Silva Commission, which recommended disciplinary action against several officers, did not name Abeysekara.
The same hearing produced the state’s detailed case against Sallay’s writ petition, including allegations that he gave four incorrect device passwords and concealed facts about his diplomatic passport.
Context
Azad Maulana — also known as Mohamed Milar Mohamed Hanseer — is a former personal secretary to Pillayan whose claims about the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks were aired in a Channel 4 documentary in 2023, and whose statements have featured repeatedly in the case.
Cardinal Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, is the one intervening party on the opposite side of the docket: he moved to intervene in July seeking dismissal of Sallay’s petition, while the other intervening petitions ask the court to grant Sallay the relief he seeks.
The Patriotic National Movement is not a disinterested commentator on that docket. NewsFirst’s list of the intervening parties in the same writ application includes the movement itself, rendered as the National Patriotic Movement, alongside four Buddhist monks and the nationalist writers Gunadasa Amarasekara and Wasantha Bandara. Its criticism of the Cardinal’s petition is therefore made by a party on the opposing side of the same case. Ada Derana’s report did not note this.
The movement’s intervention adds to sustained public pressure over the detention. A fresh 90-day detention order was issued on Tuesday under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, three days before the previous period was due to lapse, despite appeals to the President from Sallay’s wife and mother.
The allegations made at the press conference are untested. LankaNewz could not independently verify them, and no other verified newsroom had reported the press conference at the time of writing. Sallay has not been charged; the allegations against him remain under investigation.
