I am going to explain about the Commission on Political Victimisation established by President Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The Commission was set up to investigate acts of political victimisation faced by Government officers, public servants, officers in state institutions including corporations, armed forces personnel and police officers during the period from 8 January 2015 to 19 November 2019, and to mete out justice. This is what appears to be the aim of this commission.
Let me reiterate the mandate of the Commission appointed by the President: to investigate any injustice done to state officials, Government officers, officers of corporations and boards, armed forces personnel and police officers, and to assure them justice.
by Saman Indrajith
The implementation of the recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into political victimization (PCOI) would have a huge effect on the independence of the judiciary and its function in search of justice, says the Lawyers’ Forum for the People.
“This is a real danger to democracy and the country’s democratic institutions and processes”, Co-Convener of the Forum, Attorney-at-Law Senaka Perera told a news conference at the Dr. NM Perera Center last week.
“The recommendations, if implemented, will inflict irrevocable damage on the judiciary and impact adversely on democracy. Politicians can come and go. They appoint commissions as a means to their political ends, but the judiciary is not so. The Judiciary is not there to serve the politicians to achieve their political goals but to serve all people alike”, he noted.
It is my privilege to send my fondest wishes to Krishantha Prasad Cooray on this occasion of celebrating his birthday. To those who are unfamiliar with the background of one of my oldest and dearest friends, Krishantha is the kind of business leader and political visionary that even a very fortunate country will only see […]
President Rajapaksa’s tainted Commission to investigate claims of political victimization was really an attempt to give immunity to the perpetrators of true acts of political vengeance, Dissanayake told supporters at a meeting at the National Library auditorium on Tuesday (2). The seminar was titled “Kakkille Komisama”.
“Who killed Lasantha Wickrematunge? That was not political revenge, that was politically motivated murder. Did we attack Poddala Jayantha and Keith Noyahr until their limbs were broken and disappear Prageeth Ekneligoda? Those aren’t acts of political revenge. Those were politically motivated deadly assaults. Sarath Fonseka was dragged to the Navy HQ and imprisoned for a year. Who did that? Did we do that? Wasn’t that an act of political revenge?” said Dissanayake in a highly charged speech.
A leaked copy of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) on political victimization reveals that it has been used to exonerate, white-wash and acquit without charge perpetrators of the most heinous crimes committed in Sri Lanka in the recent past and in many cases reward murderers, abductors, and money launderers with compensation by the state.
The report, first leaked on social media and thoroughly perused by Colombo Telegraph revealed that the Commission unanimously decided that the charges and indictments against every accused in so-called emblematic cases highlighted by the UN, including the murder and abduction of journalists, should be dismissed, the indictments in currently active trials quashed and the complainants acquitted and released.