Legal action against former LTTE leaders

Senasinghe says decisions need to be based on nature of each person's actions:

by Dhaneshi Yatawara

Deputy Minister of Justice, Sujeewa Senasinghe

Deputy Minister of Justice, Sujeewa Senasinghe, while admitting every crime should be punished irrespective of the person involved, however spoke of the need to view the crimes of certain ex-LTTE leaders in the context of their action in joining mainstream politics and the Government's reconciliation ideology.

He was responding to a question as to whether the Government intends to take legal action against ex-LTTE leaders, Kumaran Padmanabhan alias KP, Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pilleyan, in the back drop of the death sentence passed on a soldier found guilty of several murders committed in Mirusuvil in December 2000.

The Deputy Minister said the decision on the nature of the legal actions needs to be based on the nature of each of these person's actions. "Those who came in to the main political stream and supported the Government to end the war need to be considered on the reconciliation ideology of the Government," he said, adding that ex-LTTE cadres who are still serving jail term need to be looked at more humanely, giving priority to successful peace building. However, he said that depending on each case, if one's guilt is proven beyond a doubt then legal action should be taken making them serve the relevant punishment.

The Colombo High Court last week sentenced to death a soldier found guilty of mass murder Mirusuvil, Jaffna, in December 2000. Initially, the Attorney General filed charges against five soldiers in connection with the murder, but four of them were acquitted as there was insufficient evidence to link them to the murders.

Senasinghe emphasised that attitude of the law and order officials as well as of the citizens needs to change urgently, parallel to the political will, if justice is to take place.

Commenting on the current legal frame work, Senasinghe said the inadequacies were being remedied with new enactments, independent commissions and investigations. Victim and Witness Protection Act and a few other new acts related to crime investigations enacted recently will also leave less space for legal ambiguities, he explained.

"The system adopted by the new Government leaves very little or no space for the politicians and powerful people to manipulate an investigation," he added.