Controversy over move to arrest website editor

An order by a local Magistrate asking Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant on the Editor of a London-based website reporting on Sri Lanka figured for a second week in succession at Tuesday’s weekly ministerial meeting.

Raising issue was Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando. He said it took the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) almost one and a half years to obtain a warrant on Udayanga Weeratunga, former Sri Lanka Ambassador to Russia. Detectives want to question him on the MiG-27 procurement deal.

In the case of the warrant on the editor of the website, Mr. Fernando said, it had taken only three days. The Minister called it a “shameful exercise” and should be “condemned.” He noted that the website in question had backed President Sirisena at the Presidential elections.

Ports and Shipping Minister Arjuna Ranatunga, however, said that he did not agree with the views expressed by his colleague. On one occasion, he recalled, the website in question had posted an article praising his role as the Minister. Thereafter, he charged, that the editor in question had telephoned him and sought money. He did not pay and had been criticised thereafter. Endorsing his views were Transport Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva and Irrigation and Water Resources Management Minister Wijith Wijayamuni de Zoysa.

A lawyer for the website has written to the Judicial Services Commission alleging that the warrant was issued because his client had reported on criticism levelled at the Attorney General’s Department by a Magistrate.

The international warrant seeks to arrest the editor in question. A Red Notice is a request to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition. It is issued by the General Secretariat of Interpol headquartered in Lyons, France, at the request of a member country or an international tribunal based on a valid national arrest warrant. It is not an international arrest warrant. However, Interpol cannot compel any member country to arrest an individual who is the subject of a notice.