Take steps to ensure BASL Chief’s security: Karu

Thursday, 17 July 2014 01:42 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

UNP Leadership Council Chairman Karu Jayasuriya has expressed concern over the attempt to intimidate Bar Association President and top lawyer Upul Jayasuriya on Tuesday, and called on the Government to ensure his security and conduct impartial inquiries into the incident. Attorney Jayasuriya made a Police complaint on Tuesday saying he had been followed by two men on a motorbike for several hours and expressed fears for his safety.

Issuing a media release, Jayasuriya said the BASL Chief had been a strong critic of the breakdown of law and order, the abuse of power and the undemocratic trajectory of the Government. “It would not be wrong to believe there is a political motivation behind his act of intimidation,” Jayasuriya said in the release. The UNP Leadership Council Chairman said that previous attacks against the former BASL President Wijedasa Rajapaksa and the Judicial Services Commission Secretary Manjula Tillakaratne had gone uninvestigated and the perpetrators had never been found. “We are strongly urging the Government and the IGP to conduct proper, independent inquiries into this recent attempt to intimidate the senior lawyer,” he said.

Lawyers Collective condemns sinister move to intimidate BASL Chief

Lawyers Collective has condemned what it called a ‘sinister move’ to intimidate Bar Association of Sri Lanka President Upul Jayasuriya on Tuesday. The Lawyers Collective in its statement said Jayasuriya has been followed by an unidentified group (a motor bicycle and a three wheeler) on 15 July for hours. “Jayasuriya has been a strong leader of the Bar who has spoken strongly and fearlessly against the breach of Rule of Law, abuse of constitutional norms and erosion of democracy in Sri Lanka. Jayasuriya has made a formal complaint at the Kurunduwatta Police station (Colombo 7) around 5 p.m. in this regard,” the statement said. “We have witnessed a regular pattern of surveillance on civil society organisations, human rights defenders and individuals critical of the Government. There is also a series of unsolved crimes committed against those individuals where the Government has not shown any interest to investigate and prosecute the offenders. We consider the threat on the President of the Bar Association as a serious indication of the prevailing questionable law and order situation of Sri Lanka,” Lawyers Collective said. “While strongly condemning the intimidation on the Bar Association and its President, we urge the Government to conduct an impartial investigation and ensure protection of the President of the Bar Association. We have no doubt that the general public of Sri Lanka who value democracy in earnest condemns this dastardly act against Mr. Jayasuriya, irrespective of their political affiliation,” the Lawyers Collective statement added.