Former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Major General (Retd.) Suresh Salley is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, severe mental stress and depression in custody, and was allegedly subjected to torture at five different locations, his counsel told the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday (June 3), NewsFirst reported.
President’s Counsel Shavindra Fernando, appearing on behalf of Salley, presented a motion to Magistrate Pasan Amarasena outlining his client’s medical condition. The case was taken up while Salley remains in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department under detention orders.
Fernando told the court that Salley had been examined by a Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) whose report confirmed PTSD, severe mental stress and depression. The medical report also indicates that Salley was allegedly subjected to torture at five different locations, the lawyer said, and that the medical findings suggest he may be at risk of self-harm or suicide.
His legal team asked the court to issue appropriate orders in light of the seriousness of the findings. However, Magistrate Amarasena said a ruling could not be made without first hearing the position of the complainant party. The Criminal Investigation Department was directed to present its submissions on the matter, and the case was scheduled to be taken up again on Wednesday (June 4) at 2:00 p.m.
Salley has been named as the third suspect in the ongoing investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks and was arrested by the CID on 25 February in Peliyagoda. He has been held under a 90-day detention order under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for further interrogation over alleged links to the attacks. In May, the Attorney General’s department formally named him as a “key driving force” behind the attacks, the strongest public framing of the prosecution case to date.
The PTSD disclosure and torture allegations open a new accountability axis in the Easter probe that is distinct from the criminal-conspiracy track being prosecuted by the CID and Attorney General. The same Colombo Fort Magistrate’s bench on Tuesday separately imposed a travel ban on former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa on findings that the attacks were “planned and coordinated by Salley.”
June 4 hearing: prosecution challenges medical findings, ruling deferred to June 10
At Wednesday’s resumed sitting on 4 June, the prosecution mounted a sustained challenge to the medical report. Additional Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris told the Magistrate that no reasonable evidence had been presented to prove that Salley was suffering from any serious medical condition. The ASG noted that Salley had been referred to a nutritionist, ophthalmologist and psychiatrist on 4 May, with the report received on 18 May — and that the defence motion had been filed two weeks later, on the same day Salley’s writ petition was taken up in the Court of Appeal, to “secure sympathy” from the appellate court.
Mr. Peiris questioned whether long-term diagnoses could be drawn from a short-term psychiatric assessment in which Salley had reportedly only cried in front of the consultant psychiatrist and not before the nutritionist or the eye specialist. He told the court that Salley — who as State Intelligence Service director had “handled eight suicide bombers” between 2017 and 2019 — had been provided with green tea, patties, egg rice, milk toffee, Coca-Cola, fish oil tablets and vitamin C in custody, allowed weekly contact with his wife and son and additional calls with his mother, and referred for dental, eye and hearing examinations. The ASG argued the medical report could not be accepted.
The Attorney General has separately asked the court to direct the Director General of Health Services to refer Salley, currently held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, to a specialist medical board for a fresh evaluation, Ada Derana reported.
President’s Counsel Shavindra Fernando, appearing for Salley, told the court the psychiatric report had referred in seven separate instances to severe torture by “external parties, not investigation officers,” who had ordered his client to remove his clothes, stretch out his arms, and assaulted his legs while he was in CID custody. Counsel said doctors had indicated that treatment could not be conducted in Salley’s current detention environment and that the report flagged a suicide risk, requesting the Magistrate to issue appropriate orders.
After hearing submissions, Magistrate Pasan Amarasena said the ruling on the requests made by the defence — and on the AG’s specialist-medical-board request — would be delivered at 2.00 p.m. on 10 June.
