DSG faults TID for waiting on AG to arrest Easter Sunday attackers

• Deputy Solicitor General says TID need not have waited two years for AG instructions to arrest Zahran  
• Says TID empowered to carry out arrests without AG concurrence 
• Points out info. sent by TID in 2017 insufficient for AG Dept. to take action

By Ashwin Hemmathagama

Testifying before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) investigating the Easter Sunday attacks, Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris yesterday faulted the Terrorist Investigations Division (TID) for waiting for over two years for instructions from the Attorney General’s Department to arrest suspects of National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ).

According to Peiris, such instructions from the AG’s Department are not required for TID to proceed to arrest the suspects connected to the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ).

“The TID has enough powers to arrest suspected terrorists. So, to arrest the suspects, the TID need not wait for our instructions. TID should take responsibility of not arresting terrorists linked to the NTJ. When there is a delay in their side, the TID always plays the trump card that they sought advice from the AG’s Department, and were unable to proceed without instructions. The TID’s statement gives the wrong impression to the public,” held Peiris. 

He rejected the testimonies of two TID officers who appeared before the Committee a few days ago to highlight the poor support received from the AG’s department. According to these two officers, the AG’s Department replied to their 2017 letter seeking guidance to arrest the Easter Sunday attack mas-termind Zahran Hashim and his associates, but the response only came in 2019, highlighting technical errors in the request.

However, testifying before the Committee on 29 July, two other officers from the AG’s Department - Additional Solicitor General Sumathi Dharmawardena and Senior State Counsel Malik Azeez - accepted the fact that there was a lapse in responding to the TID’s letter, seeking assistance to ban the NTJ or-ganisation and its propaganda on the Internet.

“The files referred to us by the TID did not have substance for a case. One of the files contained noth-ing but two speeches, and printouts of posts captured from Zahran’s Hashim’s Facebook page. How can we file a case based on that?” held Peiris.

“The AG’s Department is empowered by Section 393 of Chapter 33 of the Criminal Procedure Code to instruct and to provide legal advocacy to the Police and other investigators. We provide advocacy to proceed with the cases, if there is a reasonable prospect of conviction of the suspects named in the case. We do not usually address the matters forwarded to us by the general public. But if we receive a public petition in writing regarding a serious offence or violation of laws, then we could open a file,” he added, referring to the letter from Al Haj Abdul Jawadh Alim Waliyyullah Trust, received in 2017.

“This letter, hand-delivered to AG’s Department, was signed by a Moulavi named K.R.M. Sahlan and was addressed to the Inspector General of Police (IGP). In this letter, the Moulavi sought the involve-ment of law enforcement authorities to investigate the threats against innocent Muslims from the NTJ. There were some pictures of sword-carrying mobs wandering on Kattankudy streets attached to the letter. On 22 June 2017, we informed the IGP to update us on all investigations on the NTJ. But we never received any update from the Police. At that time, I did not know the TID was also carrying out an investigation about Zahran and the NTJ,” he added.