Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama has directed the Inspector General of Police to investigate whether remarks made by former minister Wimal Weerawansa at a rally on 12 September amounted to contempt of court, and to report the findings back to court.
The direction was given on Friday during the sitting at which Weerawansa’s target — the bribery case against MP Namal Rajapaksa — was itself called, the Daily Mirror reported.
Prosecutors brought a CD to court
Deputy Solicitor General Janaka Bandara asked the court to consider whether remarks Weerawansa made at the rally, concerning an order the court had issued against Rajapaksa on the previous hearing date, amounted to contempt.
He made the submission while producing a CD containing footage of the remarks, Hiru News reported. Bandara submitted that action should be taken to prevent conduct capable of undermining the authority of the court, and asked for an appropriate order.
NewsFirst reports that the request came from the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), the complainant in the Rajapaksa case, and places the rally at an SLPP meeting in Anuradhapura at which Weerawansa criticised the court’s decision to remand Rajapaksa.
”Not merely a personal issue”
In making the order, the Chief Magistrate said the matter should not be treated as a personal issue against him, but as one concerning the authority of the judiciary as a whole — the reasoning the Daily Mirror records for referring the question to a police investigation rather than dealing with it in the courtroom.
At the same sitting, the court further remanded Rajapaksa until 29 September and set a timetable for a written bail application.
This is a second, separate contempt matter
Weerawansa is already before a different court on a contempt complaint, and the two should not be confused.
The existing matter is before the Court of Appeal, which on 15 September named a three-judge bench to hear a complaint against six people including Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpila. That complaint was referred upward by the Colombo Fort Magistrate on a Criminal Investigation Department complaint, and concerns statements allegedly made at a July protest over the arrest of Suresh Salley.
Friday’s direction is distinct on every count: a different court (the Colombo Chief Magistrate), a different complainant (CIABOC), different conduct (the 12 September rally), and a different stage — a police investigation has been ordered, not a referral to a bench. No contempt finding has been made against Weerawansa in this matter.
The rally
The 12 September event was the SLPP’s ‘Janasatana’ rally in Anuradhapura, held under the patronage of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, at which Weerawansa accused the government of sparing its own allies in its crackdown on the criminal underworld.
Not reported
No outlet quotes the remarks at issue. None of the three reports states what Weerawansa actually said about the court order — the element on which any contempt finding would turn. The contemporaneous coverage of the rally reported his attacks on the government’s handling of the underworld, not any criticism of the judiciary.
Nor does any report say what order the court had issued against Rajapaksa on the previous hearing date, whether Weerawansa has been given notice or an opportunity to respond, what timeframe the IGP has been given, or whether the investigation could lead to a referral to a higher court as the July complaint did.
