Editorial blasts CID's political subservience

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 October 2007, 12:10 GMT]
The editorial of this weekend's Sunday Leader launched a scathing attack on the Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Division (CID) as having been reduced to a "mere plaything of the Rajapakse Brothers and hangers-on such as [Minister] Wijeratne, poodles to do their beck and call," and called Mr. Wijeratene a "pathetically bad liar" who will soon be exposed as "a fraud, a purloiner of the public purse, and a perjurer," after the CID arrested Tamil journalist Wamanan on a hearsay charge of extortion, following Wamanan's article exposing Mr. Wijeratne of misappropriating government funds.

The paper found it incredible that "Wijeratne invented these allegations to get even with a journalist who had exposed him of misappropriating public funds, but that simply on his word, the CID took Arthur into custody."

Comparing CID to Hitler's Gestapo, the paper said: "Their patent racism is also clear from the fact that having identified Arthur as a Tamil, they wrote down his statement in Sinhala despite him asking that it should be written down in Tamil or English. They then forced him to sign it. What is more, he was not permitted to have a lawyer present.

On the CID's "subservience to its political masters," the paper said: " From the outset, he was treated as a terrorist suspect. Indeed, in their submissions to the magistrate last Friday, the CID was careful to point not only to the fact that Arthur's parents were "from the north," but that he resided in Wellawatte, immediately identifiable as Colombo's Tamil enclave. To the CID that was sufficient reason to further remand Arthur.

"So shocking was that submission made on behalf of the State that Senior Counsel for Arthur, Attorney Nalin Ladduwahetty immediately responded stating he was ashamed as a Sinhalese to hear such a statement being made by the CID representing the Republic. He asked the Court whether Arthur was to be further remanded as demanded by the State because he was a Tamil. The look of disgust on the Magistrate's face was ample testimony to what she thought of that submission by the CID."

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External Links:

SL:

The Ordeal Of Arthur Wamanan