CLARIFICATION
With reference to the Daily Mirror Page 1 news item headlined: Court rejects request to summon Shavendra Silva, Attorney K.S. Ratnavale has sent the following clarification:
Cases in respect of Habeas Corpus applications regarding those persons who surrendered to the Sri Lanka Army on May 18 and 19, 2009 were taken up on March 30, 2017 in the Mullaitivu Magistrate’s Court.
Major General (retired) Chanakya Gunawardane was the only witness called by the respondent Sri Lankan Army. Maj. Gen. Gunawardane stated he was not the commanding officer of the 58th Brigade stationed in Mullaitivu in the relevant period of May 2009 and he had filed his statement of objections in the case by virtue of holding that post in 2013 when these cases were filed.
Consequently he did not know of any persons surrendering to the Army or any persons being arrested or detained.
He had not carried out any investigation on the allegation made by the wife of the corpus. Instead he had only checked with the register compiled by the Commissioner General of Rehabilitation and had not found the name of the corpus. Cross examined by Counsel for the Applicant, K.S. Ratnavale, as to who was serving as the commander of the 58th Brigade in May 2009, the witness stated that General. Shavendra Silva was serving in that capacity.
Counsel Ratnavale thereupon made an application to court that the only person who could shed light on what may have happened at the relevant period is General Shavendra Silva and that the court is possessed with the authority to issue summons in terms of the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Deputy Solicitor General Kumaran Ratnam representing the Sri Lanka Army objected to the application stating that there is no necessity at this stage to summon the Army General as a witness and that only the High Court had jurisdiction to do so. He further stated that this was a ploy to mislead court.
On hearing submissions made by both Counsel, Magistrate M.M. Samsudeen reserved order to be delivered on April 27, 2017.