The Chief Prelate of the Asgiri Chapter, Most Venerable Warakagoda Sri Gnanarathana Thero, has written to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake over the deteriorating health of former State Intelligence Service chief Major General (Retd.) Suresh Sallay in CID custody, the family said on Friday after a visit to the detained officer.
Family members who saw Sallay earlier in the day said his worsening condition had become a matter of serious concern and that his life could now be at significant risk. The Chief Prelate’s letter noted that Sallay’s wife had visited the Asgiri Viharaya and made a direct appeal on behalf of her husband, requesting assistance in securing relief. The Prelate informed the President of her request and called for suitable consideration of the matter, Ada Derana reported.
The intervention by the head of one of Sri Lanka’s two principal Buddhist chapters is the first formal Sangha-level approach to the President on the Sallay file, opening a religious-establishment channel distinct from the legal and political tracks that have shaped the case to date. Sallay was admitted to the National Hospital in Colombo from CID custody on June 7 after his condition deteriorated during a self-declared fast-unto-death. He has remained the subject of a court-appointed psychiatric assessment, a PTA review demand from the Communist Party and parallel opposition pressure since his arrest in February.
The Asgiri Prelate’s appeal reaches the President as the Easter Sunday prosecution case Sallay has been detained in connection with continues at the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court, where the Attorney General has named him as the “mastermind and contractor” of the 2019 bombings. The family has reiterated its position that the conditions of his custody are inhumane and that his hunger strike, begun before his hospitalisation, has not ended despite medical advice. Police have rejected the family’s allegations of mistreatment.
Source: Ada Derana.
