AG’s Dept. says TID should have used two open warrants issued on Zahran

Deputy Solicitor General Azard Navavi, in consultation with Senior Deputy Solicitor General Sumathi Dharmawardena, informed the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) investigating the Easter Sunday attacks that the Terrorist Investigations Division (TID) should have used the two open warrants issued on July 2017 and July 2018 to arrest Zahran, rather than waiting for a reply from the Attorney General’s Department.

Navavi and two other officers from the AG’s Department, who were severely questioned before the Select Committee at the Parliament complex yesterday, held that the first open warrant was issued against attack mastermind Zahran by the Batticaloa High Court, for being involving in violent clashes. This was followed by another warrant on 18 July 2018 from the Colombo Magistrate’s Court, as per the request from the TID.

Unable to give a straight answer to the questions raised by the members of the Select Committee, Navavi and the team wanted to discuss the answer among themselves before expressing it openly. 

Navavi, responding to a question raised by Committee Member and JVP lawmaker Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, held that the AG’s Department needs to check the original documents, rather than relying on translations received from the TID for investigations. 

“We need the original investigation file from the TID. We cannot recommend the arrest of a person without evidence to prove that the person had violated the law. The TID documents do not contain such evidence. The TID is an organisation with experience. I do not see the need for giving instructions on arrests to the TID. They produced to us a dead file in our terms. After one year, they produced another file. It does not contain any investigation reports. It contained only 14 documents containing the speeches by Zahran,” he said. (AH)