Press Release – 18th July 2013
It is reliably learnt that the government is in the process of instituting criminal prosecution against the CJ, Shirani Bandaranayake shortly. The recommencement of the hate campaign against her in the state media is an indication of this intended action. The state media is known to be operating in close collaboration with all law enforcement agencies in the country. We have witnessed such behaviour of the state media in similar cases where the government is involved in a witch-hunt against individuals and organisations.
Lawyers’ Collective reiterates that due to governmental interference, law enforcement has lost its operational independence. The manner in which the proceedings of the Parliamentary Select Committee were manipulated demonstrated the extent to which the government has gone to persecute the head of the judiciary. Initiation of a prosecution of CJ Shirani Bandaranayaka is one of the techniques the government will resort to, in order to justify the impeachment, before the Commonwealth Summit scheduled in November 2013.
Lawyers Collective urges the Government to desist from persecuting CJ, Shirani Bandaranayake any further, as it is a continuation of the attack on the administration of justice. Lawyers Collective considers the intended prosecution as a malicious witch-hunt. It is a prolongation of the unprecedented ugly impeachment process never heard of in a democracy before. Though the Government and its agencies are working tirelessly at present to show the world that the impeachment was lawful, the lawyers want the public not to be misled by any further “post-impeachment moves” by the Government, through its various branches, to justify the impeachment. There was no doubt that at the time of the impeachment, the highest courts of the country had determined that the PSC proceedings were unconstitutional and the Executive and Parliament ignored such determinations.
