Impeach AG - Lasantha’s daughter writes to PM

Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge's daughter Ahimsa has urged Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya to take steps to impeach the Attorney General for gross abuse of power and gross neglect of duty in connection with the criminal proceedings on the assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge.

 

In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, she said, "I write with grave concern about the action taken last week by the Attorney General, Mr. Parinda Ranasinghe, to discharge three individuals who had been named as suspects in Mount Lavinia Magistrate's Court Case Number B 92/2009, the inquiry into the assassination of my father, Lasantha Wickrematunge. I am also grateful to your government for its swift announcement that it will review the decision despite the political risks stemming from the NPP's pledge to foster a criminal justice system independent of political interference. However, I fear that the government believes that applying pressure on Mr. Ranasinghe to reverse his decision will be a sufficient solution."

 

Ahimsa said the Attorney General is responsible to Parliament and that the only way to fulfil the government's pledge to repair the justice system is to impeach him before Parliament and seek his removal from office.

 

However, the Attorney General’s (AG) Department said that AG's legal opinion on discharging three suspects was not related to the killing of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge but related to the abduction of Wickrematunge’s driver and the disappearance of his field notebook.