‘Lawyers Collective’ condemns the attack on journalist Chandana Kuruppuarachchi at Haliela a few days ago. This comes in the wake of the threatening of members of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) including BASL president Upul Jayasuriya and Human Rights activists, lawyers, Namal Rajapakse and Manjula Pathirage.
Details of the incidents in the public domain shows that these incidents were well planed and exercised through professionals well versed in the art of attacking persons who are committed to fighting for democracy, rule of law, independence of the judiciary and human rights. The law of the country just not seem to stretch to these persons.
It is in any case encouraging to see that civil society groups including BASL, FUTA and Associations of Journalists have come together to struggle to protect the democratic rights of the people and we call upon other professions and civil society groups to join in this struggle.
Conveners : Lal Wijenayake, Chandrapala Kumarage, JC Weliamuna
