Retired Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay’s Counsel Shavendra Fernando, PC, recently told Colombo Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena that Mohammed Milhilar Mohammed Hanzeer alias Azad Maulana’s statement that implicated his client in the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage couldn’t be accepted as evidence in a court of law without cross-examination.

Fernando also reminded the court that a warrant had been issued in respect of Maulana, one-time aide to Sivanesathureyai Chandrakanthan, alias Pilleyan, over a case of bigamy.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in late February this year arrested Sallay, who served as the Director of State Intelligence Service (SIS)s from Nov. 2019 to early Oct. 2024, just weeks after the National People’s Power (NPP) won a 2/3 majority at the parliamentary election. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake brought in DIG Dhammika Kumara as Sallay’s successor. Sallay previously served as the head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) from 2012 to 2016.

Making submissions to the court after Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Dileepa Peiris, Fernando emphasised that a court of law couldn’t act on a statement submitted through a third party as it couldn’t be relied upon.

At the onset of his submissions, the retired officer’s Counsel declared that he was making submissions before the court and not for the media.

The crux of the matter was whether Maulana, a fugitive from Sri Lanka law, whose statement, recorded by a team of CID officers, led by its Director SSP Shanie Abeysekera, at the Sri Lankan mission, in Paris, could be accepted without cross-examination.

The Attorney General’s Department and the suspect’s Counsel explained their position with regard to producing Sallay, detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in court.

The ASG requested that an order, issued by the Colombo Fort Magistrate court to produce Sallay in court, be vacated. Responding to the ASG’s statement that there was no provision to produce a person detained under PTA, in court, the President’s Counsel pointed out that no existing provision denied such an opportunity. The retired officer’s Counsel said that it was the Magistrate’s prerogative.

Alleging that there was an ongoing attempt to derail the Easter Sunday investigation, the ASG opposed an opportunity for Sallay to make a statement in court in terms of the Section 127 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Fernando emphasised that Salley should be given the opportunity.

Fernando also strongly opposed the ASG’s move, on behalf of the Attorney General, to have an earlier order issued by court, to ensure Sallay received unhindered access to his lawyers, vacated. He questioned how the Attorney General, who heads the Bar, could deny the right of lawyers to have free access to their clients.

Magistrate Amaraseena told the court that a report on Sallay’s health has been received by the court. Fernando has said that he would respond once he received a copy.

During cross talk among lawyers, President’s Counsel Fernando has asked Rienzie Arsularatne, PC, who appeared for the Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, whether the Cardinal had approved and condoned the inhuman conditions in which Sallay was held in a 6X4 rat-infested cell.

ASG Peiris responded jokingly that Fernando might be excommunicated by the Cardinal. Fernando has pointed out that only the Pope could excommunicate and that the Cardinal administered the churches and priests and that, too, only in Colombo.

Based on the statement recorded from Maulana, the CID submitted a 14-page report to the Colombo Magistrate’s court, declaring Sallay as the 2019 Easter Sunday terror mastermind.

Maulana repeated accusations, aired by Channel 4 TV in a documentary “Sri Lanka’s Easter bombings” in its “Dispatches” programme on Tuesday 05, September ,2023.

According to Maulana’s statement recorded in Paris, Seyani Maulavi, an associate of Zahran Hashim, had got in touch with former Eastern Province Chief Minister Pilleyan, in the Batticaloa Prison, where both were held.

Pilleyan had been arrested in connection with the alleged involvement in the assassination of ITAK MP Joseph Pararajasingham on Christmas Eve, in 2005, in Batticaloa, while Maulavi was apprehended over a clash at Aliyar junction, in the east.

Maulavi has reiterated that Sallay met six persons, including Zahran Hashim, at Karadippooval, in Puttalam, in 2018.

The statement claimed that immediately after the Easter suicide blasts, Sallay directed Maulana to pick Jameel, who had been assigned to bomb Taj Samudra, but didn’t do so, and to collect his hand phone. Visits by Mahinda Rajapaksa, Basil Rajapaksa and Namal Rajapaksa to the Batticaloa Prison to meet Pilleyan, too, had been mentioned with Maulana claiming that the visitors gave Pilleyan an assurance he would be released within six months from Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory at the 2019 November presidential election.

The CID told court that Gotabaya Rajapaksa, soon after winning the election, appointed Sallay as SIS head to protect the secrets, and the DMI paid Rs 250,000 bail for Maulavi. The CID also alleged direct DMI-Pilleyan link in the abduction of journalist Keith Noyahr, in May 2008, Lasantha Wickrematunga assassination, in January, 2009, attack on Rivira Editor Upali Tennakoon, in January, 2000, and in the disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda, on the eve of the 2010 January presidential election.

Another major allegation was that approximately 2,000 men, under Pilleyan’s command, were paid a monthly salary.

The Magistrate, at the end of the proceedings, declared that a decision regarding Sallay being brought to court and an opportunity for him to make a statement would be announced on July 1.

By Shamindra Ferdinando