Mastermind of the Easter attacks must be decided by AG

• BASL must speak up to ensure due process of justice 

By M.M Zuhair, Latheef Farook, Mass L. Usuf and Mansoor Dahlan

Changing the identity of the alleged mastermind of the horrific Easter attacks from Zahran Hashim to Naufer Maulavi and then to anyone else is a matter that must be left to the Attorney General (AG) of the country, in the interest of justice, equity and fair-play. 

The Government has announced time and again that the process of justice will be left to the AG and then to Courts in certain cases and for rehabilitation in other cases. Politicians, irrespective of the high offices they hold, must take care not to get themselves embroiled into the freshly mandated watch list of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR).

It is for the AG to decide who should be prosecuted, who should become witnesses, who should be discharged for lack of evidence and who should, in accordance with the regulations, be committed for rehabilitation.

We wish to emphasise that the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has a professional and ethical responsibility to be vocal in ensuring that the due process of justice is adhered to in relation to the parties who may represent the legal interests of the alleged perpetrators or the victims. This is specially so, because the UNHCHR has drawn attention to the alleged erosion of the ‘independence of the judiciary’ in Sri Lanka.     

No doubt the AG by now may be possessed of all the materials. He must be allowed to decide who may be the likely mastermind of the 21/4 attacks, based on the evidentiary material before him. It may be Zahran Hashim, Naufer Maulavi, Pulasthini Rajendran alias Sarah, the ISIS allegedly under US handlers or possibly any of the world’s intelligence agencies, some of which are notorious for toppling non-supportive governments. It may be that the Police Department has not fully investigated some of these aspects. The bottom line is that the country must know the truth. That is vital to prevent a recurrence of the carnage that those innocent Christians and the unfortunate tourists had experienced.

Perpetrators of crime and those who knowingly aided, abetted, conspired or neglected must be punished. That is very clear. But caution, care and judicious considerations are required to avoid incarcerating or punishing those innocent of any criminal act, intention or knowledge. 

Muslims of Sri Lanka have and will cooperate in all genuine efforts to end the recurrence of all forms of violence in the country, but any attempt to punish Islam or the Muslim community as a whole or its civil society or political leadership for collateral purposes will violate the Constitution as well as international treaties. Misguided moves may bring disrepute to the country and create new radicals.  It must be noted that the UNHRC has identified majoritarian and exclusionary rhetoric as carrying “the seeds of future violence and conflict”. We should avoid lengthening the UNHCHR’s watch list of Sri Lankan human rights violators.

BASL and other civil society leaders must be alert that the UNHCHR has already taken note of the “intensified surveillance and harassment of civil society organisations, human rights defenders…”, and warned about the shrinking democratic space in the country. 

The report of the High Commissioner has quoted the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief that the ICCPR Act “has become a repressive tool used for curtailing freedom of thought or opinion, conscience and religion or belief”. 

No patriotic Sri Lankan can be happy about the accusations which have received the approval of the UN Human Rights Council (UN HRC). Action on some of these matters may not wait the next round of UN HRC meetings in September 2021 or March 2022 if one looks at paragraph 59 of the UNHCHR’s report. The High Commissioner has called upon UN Member States to also apply “targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes and travel bans against state officials and other actors credibly alleged to have committed or be responsible for grave human rights violations or abuse.”

These can come as soon as for instance the 21/4 tragedy is abused to curtail “freedom of thought, or opinion, conscience and religion or belief”. 

We need to be united as a country and be free of discrimination if we are to marginalise all forms of radicalism and eradicate violent extremism. This unity is vital to pave the way for the country’s development and economic progress.

(The writers are former MP M.M. Zuhair PC, Journalist and Author Latheef Farook, Attorney-at-Law/Advocacy Columnist Mass L. Usuf and Theology Scholar Mansoor Dahlan)