Vickramabahu submits affidavit to SC over Azath Salley arrest

Dr. Vickramabahu Karunarathne has submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court against the arrest of National Unity Alliance General Secretary and former Deputy Mayor of Colombo Azath Salley. The CID on Thursday arrested Salley at his Kolonnawa house allegedly in response to various complaints made against him by the public. Here is the full text of Dr. Vikaramabahu’s affidavit:

I, Dr. Vickramabahu Karunarathne of 17 Barrack Lane, Colombo 02 being a Buddhist do hereby solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm as follows:

1. I state that I am the affirmant hereto. I affirm to the following from my personal knowledge and material available to me.

2. I am the General Secretary and Leader of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) which has been involved with several social movements and political activism in Sri Lanka.

3. I convened several political parties and launched the ‘The Movement for Unity with Power Sharing’ consisting of recognised political parties namely the NSSP, Democratic People’s Front (DPF), Tamil National Alliance (TNA), National Unity Alliance (NUA), United Socialist Party (USP). M. Azath S. Salley is the General Secretary of the NUA.

4. I state that this organisation is led by Azath S. Salley, M.A. Sumanthiran, Siritunga Jayasuriya, Mano Ganshan and myself.

5. I state that this organisation has been at the forefront in condemning any attempt to raise racism, religious sectarianism in the country.

6. I state that from about February 2013 attacks were launched by a group by the name of Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) on Muslin and Christian religious establishments and demanded that they refrain from certain religious practices.

7. I state that on every known occasion of when a place of worship or establishment came under such attack our organisation intervened to settle the matter.

8. I state that Mr. M. Azath S. Salley participated in several television debates and discussions on behalf of our organisation regarding the attack on minority religious establishments.

9. I further state that a hate campaign was carried out against the Muslims and persons of other religious faiths other than Buddhism by the State media and further more publicity to such acts of the BBS and other extremist groups were given by the other media institutions.

10. I further state that when the Dambulla mosque came under attack our organisation held in Colombo awareness programs and legitimate protests against the said attack.

11. I state that in or about March 2013, our organisation intervened to settle the dispute when certain Muslim business establishments came under attack by extremist groups. Further, since this event we monitored the isolated media campaign carried out against M. Azath S. Salley. A series of anonymous web postings and SMSes were circulated with the malicious attempt of targeting M. Azath S. Salley.

12. I state that thereafter our organisation held a press conference and called on the Government to arrest the situation and to ensure the safety and security of M. Azath S. Salley.

13. I further state that based on the information available to our organisation the Government is directly instrumental in isolating and attacking M. Azath S. Salley.

14. I further state that instead of giving protection to M. Azath S. Salley the Government proceeded to implicate him for inciting the Muslim population. Further the authorities attempted to arrest M. Azath S. Salley on several occasions without any legal basis.

15. I state that we informed the public of the moves to arrest M. Azath S. Salley and the threat to his life in or about mid April 2013. I am aware that M. Azath S. Salley filed an application for anticipatory bail in the Magistrate’s Court of Colombo which has now been granted by the Learned Magistrate. I state that our organisation held a protest objecting to move of the Government.

16. I am aware that on or about 19 April 2013, officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) questioned M. Azath S. Salley and there is a move to arrest him falsely implicating him for offences under the penal code and other laws in the country. I further state that I am aware of the move of the Government to arrest political leaders who speak out against racism and religious fundamentalism.

17. I state as a politician who observed the political developments of the country that the Government has an ulterior motive of controlling dissenting voices amongst other things.

18. I am extremely concerned about the safety and security of Mr. M. Azath S. Salley, especially keeping in mind hundreds of extra judicial killings carried out in the recent past of persons in custody none of which have been investigated properly.