The Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court appointed a five-member special medical board on Wednesday to determine whether former State Intelligence Service Director Major General (Retd.) Suresh Salley was subjected to torture while in Criminal Investigation Department custody, prompting opposition organisers to temporarily call off the Fort Railway Station satyagraha they had run for several days in his support.

Magistrate Pasan Amarasena directed that the panel — comprising judicial medical officers and specialist psychiatrists — examine Salley at the Colombo South Teaching Hospital ahead of the next hearing, and that the panel’s report be tabled before the court on that date. The Magistrate said the medical report previously placed before court was not comprehensive enough to draw any conclusion on whether the suspect had been subjected to torture in custody.

Salley is currently receiving treatment at the National Hospital in Colombo and remains in remand custody as investigations continue.

National Freedom Front leader Wimal Weerawansa confirmed that the Satyagraha opposite the Fort Railway Station had been temporarily called off in response to the court’s ruling, with next steps to be taken based on the medical panel’s report. The campaign — launched on June 8 by opposition parties over alleged inhumane and cruel treatment of the former intelligence chief and continued in a thinly-attended second day on June 9 — had persisted through adverse weather conditions.

The medical-board order is the long-anticipated outcome of the June 10 ruling reserved by the same Magistrate on June 4, after defence counsel Shavindra Fernando PC cited five consultant psychiatrists’ findings of PTSD and depression, and Additional Solicitor General Dileepa Peeris characterised the claims as an “Oscar-worthy performance.” It comes hours after Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told Parliament investigators have credible evidence that Salley directed four operatives to scout Negombo churches three weeks before the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks.

Sources: NewsFirst; Ada Derana; Newswire.