The United National Party (UNP) has called on the government to formally request the United States to hand over all material gathered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Department of Justice during their probe into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks.
In a statement, the UNP asked whether the government — which has resumed its own Easter Sunday investigation — has approached US authorities for the records, and called for any reply already received to be made public. The party said the material should be placed before Sri Lankan judicial authorities.
The UNP recalled that then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe requested a full US investigation on April 21, 2019, citing limitations in domestic investigative capacity. A similar request, the party said, was later made during a telephone call between Wickremesinghe and then US President Donald Trump.
According to the UNP, the FBI worked alongside the Criminal Investigation Department, Military Intelligence and the State Intelligence Service, and subsequently submitted a report to the Sri Lankan government. The party also referred to a 71-page affidavit filed on November 12, 2020, by FBI Special Agent Merrilee R. Godwin in the US District Court for the Central District of California, and a criminal case filed on December 11, 2020, in the US District Court in Los Angeles. Several suspects named in the US case, the UNP noted, were already in Sri Lankan custody at the time.
The statement comes as the current investigation has moved into a new phase. The Court of Appeal is hearing former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s petition seeking to block his arrest under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay remains in detention amid prosecution submissions naming him as a key driving force behind the attacks.
