Retired Major General Suresh Sallay, the former director of Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence Service, has filed a writ petition at the Court of Appeal challenging his arrest and detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, his lawyers confirmed on April 6.
The petition asks the court to direct the Criminal Investigation Department to formally present charges against Sallay or, if no sufficient charges can be established, to issue an appropriate order releasing him. Sallay was arrested in Peliyagoda on February 25 in connection with the CID investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks.
Respondents
The petition names:
- Inspector General of Police Priyantha Weerasooriya
- CID Director Shani Abeysekara
- Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security Ravi Seneviratne
- Reverend Rohan Silva
- The Attorney General
Sallay is being held under a 90-day PTA detention order. His lawyers argue the CID has so far failed to file charges or produce evidence sufficient to justify the continued detention.
Two parallel tracks
The writ petition runs alongside the magistrate’s case before the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court, where Sallay is scheduled to be produced on April 22. The two proceedings are distinct: the writ challenges the legality of his detention itself, while the magistrate’s case relates to the underlying investigation.
Sallay’s name first surfaced in a 2023 Channel 4 documentary alleging intelligence links to the perpetrators of the Easter attacks, which killed nearly 270 people at churches and hotels across Sri Lanka. He served as SIS chief under former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The case is one of four active accountability threads being closely watched in Colombo, alongside the Mahinda Rajapaksa CIABOC notice, the Pillayan murder confession, and the SriLankan Airlines Airbus bribery prosecutions.
