Threats to Shani Abeysekara must be taken seriously

This week the Attorney General informed the Court of Appeal that former Director of the Criminal Investigations Department, SSP Shani Abeysekara has been given adequate protection. The AG’s department gave the courts this assurance when the writ petition filed by Abeysekara seeking protection for him and his family was taken up before the Court of Appeal.

According to the submission made to the courts two armed Police personnel will be provided to the petitioner considering the threat levels against him. At the outset this seems inadequate, and the Inspector General of Police must be held accountable if any harm comes to this police officer who had investigated some of the most emblematic crimes committed in this country, including the still unresolved Easter Sunday attacks in April 2018.

In a Fundamental Rights petition to the Supreme Court earlier this year, SSP Abeysekera made chilling revelations that directly implicated links between the Easter Sunday bombers and several state intelligence agencies. He also claims that there was serious interference by these agencies into the CID investigations into the NTJ operations in the lead up to the Easter attacks.

SSP Abeysekera during his 23-year career at the CID, cracked some of the most emblematic and brutal criminal cases in Sri Lankan history. These include the terrorist attack in 2006 on then defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the 2001 attack on the Katunayake airport base and the attempted assassination of former president Chandrika Kumaratunge by the LTTE in 1999. The CID also investigated the current minister in charge of the Police, Tiran Alles who is accused of providing money to the LTTE in 2005 to orchestrate a boycott of the presidential election that changed the outcome with Mahinda Rajapaksa defeating Ranil Wickremesinghe with the narrowest of margins.

Investigations carried out by the CID led by SSP Abeysekara include the murder of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga, the abduction and killing of 11 mostly Tamil men by a unit of the Navy and the enforced disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda attributed to a unit of the Army. It is safe to say that Abeysekara has made several powerful enemies who are responsible for these heinous crimes and continue to hold high office.

In July 2020 under the Gotabaya Rajapaksa presidency, SSP Abeysekera was arrested by the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) which accused him of introducing weapons to implicate former Deputy Inspector-General Vass Gunawardena, who was convicted of the 2013 murder of businessman Mohamed Shiyam. Gunawardena was found guilty by a High Court trial-at-bar and sentenced to death. Then ASP Shani Abeysekera received formal commendations for his excellent investigations that led to the conviction.

After his arrest, Abeysekera was incarcerated for 11 months in connection over what the Court of Appeal later called a “concocted story.” Sri Lanka’s best known super-sleuth contracted COVID-19 and experienced a life-threatening cardiac event while imprisoned. His lawyers, activists and foreign governments had to lobby for basic healthcare to be provided for the former Director of the CID.

It is appalling that Abeysekara had to petition the superior courts in order to obtain the security he deserves. He is a prime target by those he investigated, and, in some cases, help convict. As many of those high-profile investigations have implicated numerous individuals in high positions of power it is imperative that threats to Abeysekara’s life are taken seriously.