President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday claimed that given the serious charges levelled against him, he was a bigger victim than the female employee of the Swiss embassy currently embroiled in controversy over her alleged detention and abuse. The President yesterday updated the editors of media organisations on ongoing investigations into the alleged incident reported by the Swiss Embassy employee concerning her recent purported detention, questioning and abuse by a group of armed men after she left office.Addressing editors after  a meeting with Swiss Ambassador Hanspeter Mock, Rajapaksa said that he told the envoy that, based on the available technical evidence, no such incident as alleged by the embassy employee had taken place. 

Nevertheless, investigations were continuing, the President revealed, adding that more proactive cooperation from the employee concerned would quicken the process. 

“Given the initial allegations that men poked a gun into her mouth and abducted her in a white van, etc. just after I assumed office as the President, the victim is not her but me,” Rajapaksa told the editors.

Rajapaksa also said that the Government did not believe that the Swiss Embassy had fabricated the story of the alleged incident but merely brought it to the notice of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and reported it to the police based on the complaint filed by the embassy employee. 

“We still don’t know her motive and that needs to be ascertained,” Rajapaksa said. 

He also opined that statements on the alleged incident by Opposition parties and lobby groups were unwarranted when investigations so far had proved nothing. 

Swiss detention drama takes dramatic turn