Nihal writes to Robertson on UK Bar Human Rights Committee Report

Saturday, 16 March 2013 00:00 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Following is the letter written by good governance activist and public interest litigant Nihal Sri Ameresekere to Geoffrey Robertson Q.C. who had prepared a Report on behalf of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales (BHRC), castigating the impeachment of the former Chief Justice of Sri Lanka.



Mr. Geoffrey Robertson, Q.C.

Doughty Street Chambers

53-54 Doughty Street

London WC1N 2LS

Dear Mr. Geoffrey Robertson,



I read with much surprise in the Daily Mirror newspaper in Sri Lanka of 2 March 2013 a news report, that you had prepared a Report on behalf of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales (BHRC), castigating the impeachment of the former Chief Justice of Sri Lanka.  

In this context, I am led to believe that you have been unaware of or had chosen to ignore for reasons best known to you, the contents of my letter dated 3 January 2013 to Ms. Illari Aragon, BHRC Project Co-ordinator, with relevant documents attached and copies of further documents via e-mail of the same day, copies of which are annexed. Ms. Illari Aragon promptly responded by her e-mail of the same day stating: “Dear Nihal, Many thanks for sending your letter and further communications. I will share it with colleagues monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka. With best wishes, Illari.”

Subsequently, on concerns expressed by Ms. Kirsty Brimelow Q.C., Chairperson, BHRC reported in the media, I addressed my letter dated 6 February 2013 to her, attaching further documents thereto, copies of which are also annexed.  The foregoing documentations would reveal that I had put in issue before the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, as far back as 9 February 2012, the matter of  judicial bias and disqualification on the part of the former Chief Justice, citing the House of Lords Judgments re – Pinochet, on grounds of much lesser gravity.

In the foregoing context, I am intrigued, as to whether the facts adduced in the foregoing documentations had been reviewed by you in making your Report castigating the impeachment of the former Chief Justice of Sri Lanka.

I also attach my letter of 1 March 2013 to Mr. Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary, South and Central Asian Affairs, US Department of State on a similar stance, in identical circumstances of curiously apparently not having taken cognisance of previous communications I had addressed to him on the very same subject.

Trust that in upholding the rule of law, you would take cognisance of the facts adduced in the aforesaid documentations, and re-consider the Report you have caused to be released to the media, without having heard me and/or dealt with the matters set out in my documentations submitted, which also dealt with the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct and the Latimer House Principles, and which were of relevance to the subject matter you had reported on as per the aforesaid news report.

Yours truly,

Nihal Sri Ameresekere, F.C.A., F.C.M.A., C.M.A, C.G.M.A., C.F.E.

Associate Member, American Bar Association  

Member, International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities

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