President reiterates refusal of foreign judges in human rights investigation

  President Maithripala Sirisena has reaffirmed that he will not agree to inviting foreign judges if a need arises to take judicial action following investigations into human rights violations allegedly committed by government troops and the LTTE.

Addressing the inauguration of the National Law Conference on Friday, the President said he had the fullest confidence in local judges and judicial administrators, so there was no need for international judges.

“I will not agree to get foreign judges into any kind of investigations into human rights violations allegations. We must have faith in our local judges,” the President said.

The President presided over the inauguration event of the National Law Conference organised by the Sri Lanka Bar Association at the Blue Water Hotel in Wadduwa on Friday.

Speaking at the occasion, President Sirisena said he had the utmost confidence in the judiciary and his personal belief as well as the government’s policy was to make the judiciary independent and impartial, and to strengthen the judiciary to make the system more efficient.

President Sirisena assured that the Government would take every measure to safeguard the impartiality and independence of the judicial system while strengthening the judiciary.

He said that while the Government was taking measures to ensure judicial independence and freedom, the judicial system should also safeguard its own independence and impartiality. It is inappropriate for the judicial system to be politically-influenced, he added.

He pointed out that every person should have freedom within the judicial system and this right should not be violated.

Noting that judges and lawyers had been politically-influenced and harassed in the past, the President said that a group of people had pasted posters in front of the residences of judges and he had instructed the police and relevant authorities to take necessary action immediately against those people.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Chief Justice K. Sripavan, Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya, Bar Association President Jeffrey Alagaratnam and members of the judiciary were present at the occasion.