The Court of Appeal has fixed September 18 for further hearing of the writ petition filed by former State Intelligence Service director Major General (Retd.) Suresh Sallay, in which he challenges the legality of his arrest and continued detention by the Criminal Investigation Department, NewsFirst reported.
The petition was taken up before a bench of Court of Appeal President Justice Rohantha Abeysooriya and Justice Priyantha Fernando.
A respondent asks for the petition to be thrown out
Attorney-at-Law Suren D. Perera, appearing for Rev. Fr. Rohan Silva — named as the sixth respondent — told court the petitioner had failed to place the true facts before it and asked that the application be dismissed without leave to proceed being granted.
His objection concerned a document filed with the petition. Perera said the Jayaki de Alwis Commission report attached to the application “has never been officially released” and “was only presented during a media briefing by former Minister Udaya Gammanpila”, so that what had been submitted was “merely a photocopy of that committee report”. Filing it was contrary to the rules of the Court of Appeal given the questions over its legal status, he said, and the petitioner had therefore failed to meet a fundamental requirement of a writ application — the disclosure of all material facts.
Perera also sought to detach his own client from the origin of the case. Sallay, he said, was not arrested on the basis of a complaint made by Fr. Rohan Silva about the Easter Sunday attacks, nor on statements made by Azad Maulana in a Channel 4 programme. The CID had carried out its investigations on the recommendations contained in the reports of the Janak de Silva Commission and the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the attacks, he said. The two commissions named in that submission are distinct bodies, and both have featured in the Easter Sunday investigations.
The same objection was made in July
The argument is not new. The identical objection was made by the same counsel, for the same respondent, when the petition was heard on July 27, and the President of the Court of Appeal then directed the petitioner’s counsel to clarify the matter at the next hearing. NewsFirst’s report does not say whether that clarification has since been given.
Sallay’s side wants the current CID Director joined
Counsel for Sallay submitted that the present Director of the Criminal Investigation Department should also be named as a respondent.
That request follows a change at the top of the department. When the state made its submissions in July, the CID Director named in the proceedings was Shani Abeysekera; on September 1 police announced that SSP Roshan Amarasinghe had been appointed to head the CID, described by NewsFirst at the time as an acting appointment on a special duty basis. NewsFirst’s report on Thursday’s hearing does not make that connection or name the officer.
Deputy Solicitor General Suharshi Herath told court the state had no objection to the amendment, but emphasised that the relief sought in the petition should not be altered in any way, warning that objections would be filed if it were.
On September 18, President’s Counsel Sanjeewa Jayawardena, appearing for Sallay, is expected to make further submissions in support of the petition.
Background
Sallay was arrested by the CID on 25 February over the investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks and is held under a 90-day detention order, the third in the case, issued on 25 August. The writ application is how he is contesting that detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act; twelve intervening petitions were argued on August 25, when the Attorney General’s Department accused him of obstructing the investigation. Separately, the Colombo Fort Magistrate has ordered a National Hospital report on his health.
NewsFirst renders the name “Salley”; Ada Derana and our earlier coverage use “Sallay”, the form followed here. No other verified newsroom had reported Thursday’s hearing at the time of writing.
