We sent him off after Australian High Commission produced his passport"
April 11, 2012, 8:02 pm by Zacki Jabbar
The government yesterday justified its failure to institute the due process of law against Premakumar Gunaratnam,the leader of the newly formed Frontline Socialist Party (FSP),who had entered Sri Lanka on an Australian passport bearing the name Noel Mudalige, by claiming that it had "sent him off" after the Australian High Commission, had produced his passport.
Cabinet spokesman and Acting Media Minister, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, told a news conference in Colombo that the procedure that was applicable to foreigners who had overstayed their visa’s was applied to the FSP leader, who also has a Sri Lankan passport under the name Ratnayake Mudiyanselage Dayalal, in addition to using the alias Wanniyanayake Mudiyansalage Dakson.
Asked,why Gunaratnam was just "sent off" without being tried in a court of law for overstaying his visa by five months,he said that the government had complied with a request by the Australian High Commissioner Robyn Mudie that "their citizen be permitted to return to Australia."
Questioned,if the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime by its inaction had failed to adhere to Sri Lankan law,Abeywardena said "No,there have been instances when other countries have released our fisherman caught poaching in their waters."
The FSP leader has been punished by being blacklisted and also fined,the Minister said adding that when he had failed to pay up, the claim was forwarded to the Australian High Commission in Colombo.
Gunaratnam and Dimuthu Attygalle, the womens wing leader of the FSP, belonged to a faction that broke away from the JVP and there could be several possibilities with regard to their temporary disappearance,but the government was not responsible,he claimed.
When pointed out that it was not possible for 25 armed persons who had carried out the twin abductions, to move about freely in Colombo without being detected,Abeywardena said "I reject that theory,We, had nothing to do with their disappearance."
Breakaway factions of the JVP were attempting to create trouble he, alleged " The Grease Yaka phenomenon was also unfairly blamed on us."
Displaying copies of past newspaper cuttings referring to face to face meetings between the JVP leader Somawansa Amerasinghe and Gunaratnam,the Minister queried how Amerasinghe could claim that he did not know Gunaratnam, who was the party’s Trincomalee leader in the late 1980’s.
Amerasinghe’s stance was in direct contravention of Pubudu Jagoda, the FSP’s Central Working Committee members description of Gunaratnam, as being a person who had provided yeoman service to the JVP,Abeywardena observed.
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