News

Sri Lanka’s former Ambassador to the United States Jaliya Wickramasuriya is likely to be offered a proffer agreement by US federal prosecutors this week, to spill the beans on the Government run by his cousin Mahinda Rajapaksa between 2005-2015, in exchange for leniency in money laundering and immigration fraud cases filed against him in Washington DC.

Wickremasuriya is expected to be offered a deal known as ‘Queen for a Day” in legal parlance, a process of transactional immunity, where an accused individual agrees to disclose knowledge of crimes committed by himself or others, to authorities with an implied assurance that said knowledge will not be used against them in later proceedings.

The Sunday Observer is said to have obtained emails exchanged between Wickramasuriya’s attorneys in the US and his counsel in Sri Lanka, revealing that US federal prosecutors were offering the former Ambassador a plea deal in exchange for information on the ‘Rajapaksa regime’. “They seem to want to use Mr. Wickramasuriya to initiate investigations into many others in the Sri Lankan Government, both former and current,” the email from an attorney of US based law firm Schertler & Onorato, calling itself a “first-tier law firm in Washington for white-collar and non-white-collar criminal defense states.”

Wickremasuriya’s lawyer in the US, claims in the email seen by Sunday Observer that he ‘would not go to jail’ in the US and believes the former Sri Lankan Ambassador would “benefit greatly” if he were to cooperate with US prosecutors against other high ranking and low ranking officials in Sri Lanka.

“Specifically, they wanted information what they called the Rajapaksa Regime and said they believed that this information was highly sensitive. They seem to want to use Mr. Wickramasuriya as a means to initiate investigation of many others in Sri Lankan government, both former and current,” the email from the US defense counsel to his Sri Lanka counterpart said.

Wickremasuriya’s lawyer in the US urges his client’s local counsel to “be discrete” on the matter, so the former diplomat “has an opportunity to provide information to the US authorities in exchange for leniency.” In his email, the Schertler & Onorato lawyer said he believed the US prosecutors would treat Wickramasuriya fairly if he were to cooperate.

Wickramasuriya is currently a fugitive from justice both in Sri Lanka and the US, where he holds residency status. He served as Sri Lanka’s Envoy to the US between 2008-2014.

He was indicted by the US District Court in the District of Columbia (Washington DC) on five counts, specifically two counts of money-laundering and two counts of wire fraud and one count of visa fraud violation by making false declarations in official US Government documentation.

In an unprecedented move in November 2018, US Government attorneys moved a motion in the District Court of DC to unseal the indictments against Jaliya Wickremasuriya, citing ‘recent change’ in the Government of Sri Lanka, following the controversial appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister on October 26, 2018. The motion to unseal Wickremasuriya’s indictment was filed in Washington DC, “in order to share the fact that the defendant has been indicted and the charges he faces with the Sri Lankan Government.”

In October 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sri Lanka formally waived the immunity Wickremasuriya held as Ambassador to the US until 2014, to facilitate the US Government investigation into the former Sri Lankan Envoy for embezzlement and laundering of public funds in connection with a controversial 2013 Sri Lankan Embassy purchase. In March 2018, Wickremasuriya challenged the Ministry’s right to waive his immunity, in the Court of Appeal which dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction.

US authorities appeared to have been concerned that the dubious transfer of power in Sri Lanka in October last year could result in a re-assertion of Wickremasuriya’s diplomatic immunity by his cousin, the controversially installed new Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. However, their fears were ultimately unfounded, as neither President Sirisena nor then Prime Minister Rajapaksa made any attempt to interfere with the diplomatic immunity affair.

Foreign Secretary Prasad Kariyawasam had informed the court that the decision to withdraw diplomatic immunity was taken by President Sirisena, which tied the hands of the appellate court, since decisions of the President in his official capacity may only be contested in the Supreme Court. A further appeal is currently pending at the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.

The former ambassador’s assertion of diplomatic immunity was rendered moot, according to officials briefed on the matter, when Wickramasuriya himself signed a form waiving his own immunities as a condition for reactivating his green card. (Sunday Observer)

The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said inter-governmental body Financial Action Task Force has called on its members to take steps to protect the financial system from threats emanating from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 

According to the top bank, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have been included in a list of nations with “strategic deficiencies” in their approach towards anti-money laundering measures and the crackdown on financing of terrorism. 

The inter-governmental organisation said Sri Lanka has taken steps since November 2017 to meet its demands. 

“Sri Lanka should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies, including by enhancing risk-based supervision high-risk Designated Non-Financial Business or Profession, including through prompt and dissuasive enforcement actions and sanctions, as appropriate; and demonstrating effective implementation of its targeted financial sanctions obligations related to proliferation financing,” the statement said. 

The Financial Action Task Force, set up in 1989, works to stop money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the international financial system. The task force has listed the Bahamas, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Serbia, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and Yemen as other countries that need to crack down on money laundering and terror financing.

The first test run on the newly constructed Matara - Beliatta train took place today. (06) The train was set off on its journey at 10am from Matara to Beliatta by Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Arjuna Ranatunga.
 
The track is the first phase of the railway track that is being constructed from Matara to Kataragama. Matara to Kataragama track is 26 km long and is the first phase of the new railway track.

Two European Union Parliamentary Members, Lord William Dartmouth and Hon. Geoffrey Van Orden, who visited Sri Lanka as members of the “Friends of Sri Lanka Group”, paid a courtesy call on the Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera at the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday.

Discussions had focused on matters of mutual interests and both parties had agreed to enhance bilateral trade and tourism cooperation.

Samaraweera also said that they further explored ways and means of maximizing benefits for Sri Lanka under the European Union’s GSP+ trade facility.

President Maithripala Sirisena is said to have forced the National Police Commission to cancel transfers of 72 OIC’s made recently. The transfers were made to replace 72 OIC’s that were promoted to the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police on October 25. 
 
While the NPC is in charge of ordering the transfers in the Police (Other than that of the IGP) the President nor the Secretary to the Minister has no power to influence the decisions made by the authority. 
 
The NPC is an independent commission and therefore the President’s arbitrary action has jeopardized the independence and impartiality of the commission. Sources say this action would once again constitute of the President acting in an unconstitutional manner. It is believed the President may be attempting to appoint those loyal to him within the Police force to the vacant positions. 
 
It must be noted that Sirisena earlier attempted to transfer one of the lead investigators IP Nishantha Silva of the CID in an illegal manner but was only prevented when the NPC reversed the illegal action.

Father of ‘The Sunday Morning’ Editor Mandana Ismail, Mohamed Sadiq Mathany Ismail passed away last night. He was the husband of Ajantha De Silva, the Father - in - Law of Romesh Abeywickrama and Grand Father of Sharanya Abeywickrama. 

The last rites will be held at the Jawatte Muslim Burial grounds today. The Janaza is located at Lauries Lane, Colombo 4.

The Tamil National Alliance will not seek redress from courts over the post of opposition leader sources within the party said. The party was in a tussle over the post with UPFA MP Mahinda Rajapaksa who was named by the Speaker as Opposition Leader on December 18 despite objections. 
 
The TNA maintained that its leader R. Sampanthan remained as Opposition leader as Rajapaksa had obtained the membership of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, a party that did not contest the last General Election, thereby cancelling his parliamentary membership according to the constitution. 
 
However, TNA sources say they believe another party or individual may file a case against the appointment of Rajapaksa as opposition leader in the coming days.

Keshal Jayasinghe has been appointed as the New Chairman of the SELASINE Rupavahini Institute by Minister of Finance and Mass Media Mangala Samaraweera. 

Jayasinghe is an old boy of Royal College, Colombo. He is also a graduate of San Francisco State University. 

Jayasinghe was previously a coordinating secretary to Minister Mangala Samaraweera.

Newly appointed Governors for five provincial councils were sworn in before President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat today (04). 

Accordingly, the new set of appointments are as follows :  

Mr. Azad Sally– Western Province

Mr. Satendra Maithri Gunaratne- Central Province

Mr. Sarath Ekanayake- North Central Province

Mr. Peshala Jayarathna Bandara- North Western Province

Mr. M. L. A. M. Hizbullah- Eastern Province

President Maithripala Sirisena had earlier requested the previous Provincial Governors to submit their resignation by the end of 201.

A new committee is to be formed to study cabinet papers put forward by Ministers prior to being presented to the cabinet. According to Minister of Buddha Sasana Gamini Jayawickrama Perera, the committee will be led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe. 

The aim of the committee is to expedite important cabinet papers while also avoiding any clashes with the President, Jayawickrama said. 

The first cabinet meeting for 2019 will be held on January 3 at the President’s Office presided by President Maithripala Sirisena.

A 46-year old woman from Sri Lanka, Sasikala, entered Kerala’s Sabarimala temple on Thursday night, making it the second time women broke the faith barrier in the controversial hillshrine after the Supreme Court overturned the ban for women between the age group of 10 and 50 in the temple.

On Wednesday dawn, two women, Bindu Ammini and Kanakadurga, had created history by entering the temple against the ban, igniting a firestorm of protests in Kerala that was marked by violence and arson on Thursday.

Reports of Sasikala’s visit has been speculated in the local media late night on Thursday, but the police officials on duty near the temple and a relative of Sasikala, speaking to reporters, had denied it. On Friday, the closed circuit camera visuals obtained by the local media suggested a woman’s spotting near the sanctum, assisted by two police officers in civilian dress.

The police have now confirmed that 46-year-old Sri Lankan woman, Sasikala, visited the Sabarimala temple, reported Hindustan Times. They said initially the news was denied as part of a strategy to ensure Sasikala’s safe return from the temple site.

Speaking to reporters, Sasikala had said that she is a devotee who has taken the ritualistic 41-day penance and cannot be stopped by anyone. She also presented reports to the police, proving to have undergone a uterus removal surgery, said local reports. The faith in Sabarimala holds menstruating women as impure. The visit has sparked protests near the temple, local reports said.

The development comes just as Kerala was limping back to normalcy after a day of heavy clashes between Sangh Parivar and Bharatiya Janata Party supported protestors stormed the state with violence over the temple entry, a move that resulted in violent clashes with the police and the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers, among others.

As of Friday morning, the police have arrested about 1369 protestors, in 801 cases and kept another 717 under preventive custody. The protests and the violence were largely subdued, but continued in parts of Kerala on Friday. In Adoor, about 50 houses, including those related to CPM workers, were vandalized by protestors, said local reports.

The controversy also reached Lok Sabha on Friday, where Congress and BJP parliamentarians attacked the ruling CPM government over facilitating women entry to Sabarimala while a review petition to reinstate the ban on women is pending before the Supreme Court.

(livemint)

Releasing a statement for 2019 that has dawned, Leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Anura Kumara Dissanayake says in 2019 the main responsibility is to set up an administrative system that strengthens democracy instead of continuing with a constitutional dictatorship following the democratic challenges faced by the country in 2018. While hinting that a new political change is the need of the hour he also said the new year would be auspicious if the masses in this country are capable of taking a new political decision in the New Year. “For this, we should be bold enough to look at the society anew and take decisions with new ideas and attitudes after casting away old ideologies and attitudes,” he said. 

Full text of the statement below : 

According to the calendar we all use, the New Year 2019 has dawned. When a year ends and a new year begins, we wish each other ‘Happy New Year’; send New Year cards. Despite this tradition of wishing each other at the dawn of the New Year being continued for ages, it has not gone beyond a mere wish for many of us. In reality, the past years have not been auspicious for a large majority in our society. This was the truth. It is not a question about the honesty of those well-wishers but what is linked to the broader socio-economic-political construction.
We wind up the old year 2018 and enter the New Year 2019 carrying with us the socio-economic-political crises and a number of challenges that have burdened us for 70 long years. The economy of the country that doesn’t create new means has gravely deteriorated. The rulers who have no vision of building the country burden it with more and more debt while the masses are fatigued with the burden of taxes and the cost of living. National assets are further plundered with the greed for ministerial portfolios and prestigious. The defeated former rulers strive hard to prevent legal action being taken against them for plundering public assets during their term. This is what exists as an unholy axis. 

Fraud, corruption, thieving and waste have spread from top to the bottom of the society and the media has reported that Sri Lanka is ranked top in the latest list of the most corrupt countries in the world. Now, would the new year become auspicious when wished with hollow words? This is the factor we all should ponder in the New Year.

Last year ended with a challenge to democracy in the country. As such, we also have, in this New Year, the responsibility of setting up an administrative system that strengthens democracy instead of continuing with a constitutional dictatorship.

However, we need not be pessimistic. There is a path before us to make the New Year auspicious. It is by getting away from the futile socio-economic-political path we have been following and resolving to enter a new political journey. We firmly believe that the new year, as well as the future of our people and the country, would be definitely auspicious if the masses in this country are capable of taking a new political decision in the New Year. For this, we should be bold enough to look at the society anew and take decisions with new ideas and attitudes after casting away old ideologies and attitudes.

This new year dawns with an omen for a new beginning. We wish all Sri Lankans, who are getting prepared to cast aside everything antiquated and futile so that they would think anew to take new decisions, courage and strength and a genuinely auspicious New Year.

New Year is for change. Let’s make change happen!