If the Government has the backbone, arrest former President Sirisena’! -Fr. Rohan Silva
“Maithripala Sirisena, who was the president at the time of the Easter attack, announced in a media conference in Kandy that he knows about the mastermind who carried out the Easter attack on April 21, 2019. Therefore, if the government has a backbone, former President Maithripala Sirisena should be arrested immediately ” challenged the government by Oblate Priest Rohan Silva, director of the Centre for Social and Religions – CSR.
“We challenge the criminal investigation teams, the criminal investigation department, the minister in charge of police, and the president who has executive powers to arrest Maithripala Sirisena tonight,” said Father Rohan Silva, at the media briefing held yesterday, 22nd March at the CSR.
He emphasized to the government that if they don’t reveal who the criminals of this Easter disaster are, you would like to name them as betrayers.
Take these opportunities to bring justice to the families of the 500 injured and 273 dead who are still suffering.
In Kandy, in front of the media, Maithripala Sirisena has stated that he is ready to reveal everything about the Easter attack if there is a request or order from the Court, and Court judges also should keep the information confidential” Farther Rohan said.
On the 21st of March, 59 months have passed since the terrorist attack on Easter Sunday, and the day before that, the former President and present Member of Parliament made such a controversial statement about the mastermind of that attack.
However, Sirisena has not stated if he has evidence for this controversial claim.
“The leadership of the Catholic Church as well as the leadership of the lay people as groups seeking justice for the great disaster that happened on Easter Sunday, we have regularly stated that there are masterminds behind this incident. We said that there is a group behind this incident that has implemented a planned program. Father Rohan Silva said that there must have been a political motive behind this great tragedy.
Father Rohan Silva stated that we have heard that the statement that Maithripala was hospitalized in Singapore at the time of this incident is also false. Today, he proved that this president must have known about this attack, he refused to make a statement about it, he was reluctant to reveal it, he put it aside and he only thought about his own future.
Father Rohan also stated that the legal advisors said that “knowing about a crime and concealing it is a crime”. If an ordinary person like us had made the statement Maithripala Sirisena made, he would have been arrested by now, but Sirisen is still free” said Father Rohan.
Sri Lanka’s Catholic leadership had demanded an independent investigation into the attack and said the Easter carnage clearly supported former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to win the 2019 presidency.
Also if there had been no instant direct effect, Father Roahn Silva including the CSR, and some civil society organizations in Negombo continuously kept the protest on the 21st of every month saying ” Easter Sunday attack should receive the Justice”.
Islamist suicide bombers targeted two Catholic churches – in Colombo and Katuwapitiya, one ecumenical church in Batticaloa, and a few hotels in Colombo killing 273 persons of Christian faithful, locals, and foreigners in six simultaneous blasts on April 21, 2019, when Catholic people celebrated Easter Sunday.
Former president Sirisena was asked by the Supreme Court to pay 100 million Sri Lanka rupees for the Easter attack victims for his failure to prevent the carnage.
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