Wednesday, 16 July 2014 00:02
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Bar President Upul Jayasuriya lodges police complaint
Claims two men followed him for four hours on motorbike
Top lawyer and Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) Chief Upul Jayasuriya has lodged a police complaint claiming he was being followed last afternoon, days after the Bar issued a scathing criticism of the Government over its attempt to straitjacket NGOs and led a court intervention about investigations into the Aluthgama riots.
Jayasuriya said he had filed the complaint at 5 p.m. yesterday, at the Cinnamon Gardens Police Station, after being followed for nearly four hours.
The Bar Association President told Daily FT that he had noticed two men on a motorcycle following him after he left court and headed to Colombo Fort at about 11:30 last morning.
“I spent half an hour in Fort. After which the motorbike followed me again to an office on Flower Road where I spent three hours,” Jayasuriya explained.
He said that the two men on the motorbike had also communicated with individuals in a three wheeler at Flower Road. ”They stayed outside the office at Flower Road, at a distance for about three hours and then they left,” Jayasuriya observed. The BASL Chief told Daily FT he had asked the police to make inquiries into the incident. "The immediate reason that could pose a threat to my security is the media release the BASL issued last Friday criticising the directive of the NGO Secretariat under the Defence Ministry prohibiting NGOs from talking to the media as a violation of the freedom of expression," Jayasuriya said.
Police Spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana confirmed a complaint had been filed by the BASL President and said investigations would be conducted.
Attorney Jayasuriya currently serving his second term at the helm of the Bar Association has been a strong critic of the Government. He filed a motion before the Kalutara Magistrate recently, demanding that the Government Analyst investigate the scene of destruction before debris was cleared. Jayasuriya was strongly critical of police inaction in Aluthgama and its failure to summon the Government Analyst to determine the cause of the fires even two weeks after the violence.
Earlier this week, Jayasuriya slammed the Government for its circular muzzling NGOs operating in the country, calling it a gross violation of the fundamental rights of the polity’ and ‘another extension of Sri Lanka’s transformation into a ‘crypto military and authoritarian state’.
In October 2012, during the battle between the Government and Chief Justice Shirani Bandranayake, Judicial Services Commission Secretary and Magistrate Manjula Tilakaratne was assaulted by an unidentified group in Mount Lavinia. The attack came weeks after Tilakaratne issued an unprecedented media release claiming there was interference with the independence of the Judiciary.
(DB)
