Kiriella wants FBI brought into investigate links between SIS and Zahran Hashim

By Saman Indrajith

State Intelligence Service head DIG Nilantha Jayawardena had not passed on to the then President Maithripala Sirisena information pertaining to Zahran Hashim and the imminent terror attacks on Easter Sunday because there had been links between the SIS and Zahran’s group, Chief Opposition Whip and Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella told Parliament yesterday.

 “The former President is here sitting in this House today. He went before the Commission of Inquiry and testified that he had not been informed of pre-warning intelligence reports by then SIS head Nilantha Jayawardena. Why was that information not given to the then President? It is because they had links?”

Kiriella said: “The Attorney General has made a statement on the Easter Sunday investigations. He says there is no sufficient evidence. Without enough evidence, he cannot prosecute. Evidence is not sufficient because they had not been submitted to the Commission. Evidence was suppressed. The most important evidence that had not been presented was the fact that Zahran had been paid out of state funds before 2015. He was a paid informant. Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka says that Zahran was not used during the times of war. The facts pertaining to paying Zahran were not presented to the Commission because the then the paymasters would have been exposed. There are those in the intelligence service who maintained links with the terrorists. We have no faith in these investigations where evidence had been suppressed. If the government is genuine and honest, it can bring in international investigators such as the FBI. Otherwise, there would be no justice for the victims of the Easter Sunday carnage.”