Former Foreign Minister and SLPP MP Prof. G. L. Peiris has challenged the government’s move to appoint a Trial-at-Bar to hear the case in which former President Ranil Wickremesinghe is under investigation over the alleged misappropriation of Rs. 16.2 million in 2023.
Speaking at a special media briefing at Wickremesinghe’s Flower Road office on Monday, Peiris said that only the Chief Justice has the authority to convene a Trial-at-Bar. “It is the Chief Justice who should decide and announce the decision to set up a Trial-at-Bar. The Chief Justice has not made any such announcement to this date,” he said.
Peiris, an internationally recognised legal scholar, argued that any third-party intervention in the process would amount to “an insult” to the Chief Justice. He alleged the government was using the mechanism to target political opponents.
A Trial-at-Bar — a panel of three High Court judges hearing a case without a jury — is a procedure typically reserved for cases involving public officials or matters of national importance. It is convened under section 450 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, traditionally on the Chief Justice’s written direction.
Peiris also noted that Wickremesinghe had recently received medical treatment in Singapore, returning home earlier this month after surgery. The former president has denied any wrongdoing in the alleged misappropriation of public funds during his 2022–2024 tenure.
The SLPP has increasingly aligned with the UNP on legal and procedural challenges to NPP-government prosecutions of former officials, forming a cross-party opposition front on accountability-driven cases now making their way through the courts.
