The Hon. Rauff Hakeem, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, before I speak on the subject, let me raise a matter. Two senior Cabinet Ministers of the Government are in the House. Through them, I wish to make a request to the Government. With the Middle East war in a temporary ceasefire, several young sailors rescued from the Iranian ship are in our country. Please ensure they are immediately repatriated to Iran during this ceasefire. Do not go back to the USA to ask again; if needed, use a mediating country to safely send this injured, rescued group back.

¶ 02 They are all young cadets. So, please see to it that you repatriate them to Iran during this period of ceasefire. We do not know, with Donald Trump, what will happen after two weeks. Therefore, in this situation, it is our duty to see that they are repatriated to Iran without any delay.

¶ 03 The President came out with a big lie about the Americans asking to land some planes in Mattala in order to avoid the issue of delaying that Iranian ship from coming into our ports. That is why, finally, that ship got destroyed. We paved the way or allowed the USA to attack the ship and finally, claimed that we are neutral. But, in fact, our activities have not shown true neutrality. Anyway, at least at this grave moment or during this ceasefire period, I am asking the Government to see that those young cadets are immediately returned to Iran.

¶ 04 Having said that, now, I would like to move onto the subject under discussion. In speaking about the Easter Sunday incident, I must emphasize that we have full confidence in the senior police officers Shani Abeysekara and Ravi Seneviratne. Based on that trust, we see a new direction emerging in this investigation. The Hon. Minister clarified several matters regarding this. Our request is that the Government render full cooperation to those two officers.

¶ 05 A few days ago, when this case was called before the Magistrate’s Court, during the hearing on bail for the former head of State Intelligence, Mr. Suresh Sallay, no one from the Attorney-General’s Department was present. We saw that CID officers lacked the capacity to answer the Magistrate’s questions. In such important cases, officers from the Attorney-General’s Department must attend and support. Why is that support not forthcoming? It raises the suspicion that the Government is being influenced. We request action on this.

¶ 06 We observe many matters continually regarding this incident. A crucial potential witness is Saharan’s wife, Sara Jasmin. When the Commission Chairman sought to summon her testimony, the Attorney-General’s Department objected. Why? However, on the Chairman’s ruling, her evidence was recorded in camera and is now in the record. From what we see there, she can be treated as an offender. There are now cases filed against her. But if instead of prosecuting her first, she had been used as a witness, we might have been able to prove even more through these cases.

¶ 07 Hon. Presiding Member, there are currently 41 cases filed regarding this attack. We observe that except for the cases against Hejaaz Hizbullah, Ahnaf Jazeem, Azath Salley, and Dr. Shafi, the evidence in all the other cases useful to the prosecution was that obtained during the time when Shani Abeysekara and Ravi Seneviratne led the CID. Thereafter, nothing much happened. We see that.

¶ 08 As this matter proceeds, many more things could be revealed. In the hotel where Saharan stayed, three foreigners who occupied the room adjacent to Saharan’s on the same floor left for their countries after the blast without even informing the hotel, sending only a message to the hotel manager. Why did they go? Why were they there? No one has examined that. It must be investigated.

¶ 09 There are several such matters, including the Vavunativu incident. After Azad Maulana revealed matters to Channel 4, his evidence should be recorded. The necessary legal framework exists for that.

¶ 10 The Code of Criminal Procedure Act has been amended; also the Assistance to and Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses Act is there. So, using those provisions, Azad Maulana’s evidence have to be recorded, even remotely. I think that has to be done very fast so that the entire inquiry could go in the correct direction. Therefore, these matters have to be brought up.

¶ 11 Together with that, we expect that those two officers who have done a wonderful job in bringing this inquiry at least to this stage would continue to be assisted by the Government, particularly by the Attorney-General’s Department so that the inquiry could, finally, bring out the real masterminds behind the incident. Thank you.