The evidence presented in connection with the arrest of Namal Rajapaksa is unreliable, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam said on Wednesday, according to Hiru News.
Kariyawasam, an attorney-at-law, spoke to reporters in the afternoon after calling on the Mahanayake Theras of the Malwatte and Asgiriya chapters. He alleged that the current administration is using anti-corruption law to target and suppress political opponents, and said no trust could be placed in the evidence being submitted in the ongoing proceedings.
Former ministers Ramesh Pathirana and Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, and former MP Mahinda Abeykoon, accompanied him.
The escalation from “revenge” to “the evidence”
The SLPP’s public position has moved. When Namal Rajapaksa was remanded on 5 September, the party framed the case as political revenge — an argument about motive that leaves the case file untouched. Kariyawasam’s remarks go further, attacking the reliability of the evidence itself, in advance of any court testing it.
He does not say which evidence, in which case, or on what basis it is doubted. Hiru’s report names no document, witness or investigative step.
Which case
Hiru does not specify the proceedings. Namal Rajapaksa was arrested and remanded in connection with the Bribery Commission’s Airbus inquiry, in which Chamal Rajapaksa was summoned to CIABOC for the same day Namal appeared and was remanded. He attended Parliament from remand on a prison bus on 8 September.
That inquiry should not be confused with the separate CID work on the phone records of Kapila Chandrasena, the former SriLankan Airlines chief executive named as an Airbus suspect, who died in May 2026; that thread is an inquest, not a live prosecution of the Rajapaksas.
The venue
The remarks were made after a call on the Malwatte and Asgiriya Mahanayakes — the customary route for a Sri Lankan political party seeking to place a grievance before the Buddhist hierarchy. Hiru does not report what the Mahanayakes said, or whether the prelates responded to the claim at all.
Not reported
Hiru gives no response from the Bribery Commission, the Attorney General’s Department or the Government, and does not report whether the SLPP intends any legal step. The evidence Kariyawasam disputes has not been described publicly by either side. No other newsroom had filed on the remarks; Ada Derana was blocked domain-wide while this was written.
