Exclusive: Full Text Of The QC Geoffrey Robertson’s 100 Points Report – CJ Shirani Is Innocent Of The Misconduct Charges

By Colombo Telegraph -February 28, 2013

A report by Geoffrey Robertson QC published yesterday by the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) concludes that the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka was innocent of the misconduct charges which brought about her removal from office last month, which was in reality a reprisal for her “careful and correct” decision in a case where she had ruled against the government. The report calls for the UK to subject the seven Sri Lankan cabinet ministers who convicted her, and 117 government MPs who signed a “false and fabricated” impeachment motion, to be refused entry visas and to have their bank accounts in Britain frozen. It wants Sri Lanka suspended from the Commonwealth, and urges the Queen not to attend the November Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM), scheduled for Colombo.

Geoffrey Robertson QC

The Report, by eminent human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC, who was the First President of the UN Court in Sierra Leone and a ‘distinguished jurist’ member of the UN Internal Justice Council which disciplines UN judges, concludes that Mrs Bandaranayake, Sri Lanka’s first woman judge, was forced out because her “careful and conscientious” rulings had displeased the government and the family of PresidentRajapaksa. Mr Robertson’s report analyses the charges against her and says that they are not based on evidence and that some of the allegations – such as the use of her title in bank statements – could not conceivably amount to ‘misconduct’. He accuses the government of further subverting the independence of judges by organising its supporters to demonstrate against her with abusive slogans and by paying for firework displays and other celebrations of her dismissal.

Mr Robertson says that the most basic rights of a defendant were denied by a “Star Chamber” of seven government ministers who put her on a secret trial. They were all biased against her because of a judgement she had given against the government, and they refused to allow entry not only to the public but to distinguished international observers. They gave her no time to prepare a defence and told her there were no witnesses to be called when this was not the position. As soon as she withdrew they called sixteen, whom she was thus prevented from cross-examining.

Mr Robertson concludes that:

“Sri Lankan political leaders treated the head of their judiciary as if she were public enemy number one, abusing the democratic process to put her through an unfair trial as punishment for doing her constitutional duty and then celebrating her unjust removal with feasting and fireworks.”

He recommended that the 117 MPs who signed the impeachment motion, and the 7 government ministers who convicted her, should all be subject to international measures now available for use against human rights violators, called the “Magnitsky Act”. This is the law that President Obama drafted last December (and which caused President Putin in reprisal to ban US adoption of Russian babies!). Mr Robertson says:

“the Magnitsky Act is a new tool to name, shame and actually punish those human rights violators who fall within the class of “train drivers to Auschwitz” – they do not order an atrocity, but it would not have happened without their help. These 117 tame MPs started the impeachment process by making false accusations against the Chief Justice. Some are likely to want to visit the UK, other have funds in UK banks. All democracies should act to protect judicial independence as a core value, and there should be a stigma attached to those that have destroyed it in Sri Lanka.”

Mr Robertson also said

“Given the blatant breach of the rule of law, for which the government purports to stand it would make a mockery of the Commonwealth as an organisation if it permits the Rajapaske government to showcase its destruction of judicial independence by presiding over CHOGM.”

He said the UK should ensure that the Queen did not attend, her presence in Colombo “would provide a royal seal of approval for the propaganda interests of President Rajapaske”.

Covering Letter by Kirsty Brimelow Q.C. - Chair, Bar Human Right Committee

The Bar Human Rights Council of England and Wales (BHRC) has been gravely concerned about the impeachment of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka and has recognised the need for an objective account and analysis of the proceedings leading up to her removal.

When the Sri Lankan government refused entry to an International Bar Association fact-finding mission led by a former Chief Justice of India, the BHRC invited distinguished international jurist, Geoffrey Robertson QC, to undertake that task.

His report is an authoritative and devastating indictment of those government ministers and Members of Parliaments who set out to destroy judicial independence by removing a judge whose decision, on a constitutional case was conscientious and correct, but nonetheless had displeased the President and his government.

The BHRC believes that this report will have a lasting impact. It is a fair, objective and expert study of the evidence and procedures used to effect the removal of the Chief Justice. It is, further, and more generally, a clear authority on the appropriate procedures for putting judges on trial for allegations of misconduct in any circumstance. .

Geoffrey Robertson Q.C. brings to his report, which he has undertaken pro bono on behalf of the BHRC, his experience as First President of the UN Court in Sierra Leone and his service as a ‘distinguished jurist’ member of the UN Justice Council, responsible for selecting and disciplining UN judges. He was counsel inRees v Crane (1993), the leading Privy Council authority on judicial removal, and defended the Chief Justice of Trinidad and Tobago at his impeachment proceedings in 2007.

No one who reads this report can put it down without thinking that something must be done to hold accountable those politicians who have acted to remove a Chief Justice simply because of her insistence that she remain independent of government.

Furthermore, the BHRC notes that in light of this report, it is now beyond doubt that the government of Sri Lanka has breached the Latimer House Principles. In these circumstances, Sri Lanka should not be permitted to hold the Commonwealth Head of Government meeting scheduled for Colombo in November 2013.

We believe the Robertson Report confirms that the removal of the Mrs Bandaranayke was a contrived attack on the independence of the judiciary. The BHRC hopes that, armed with this information, responsible organs of the UK Parliament, and of the Commonwealth, and Bar Associations throughout the world, will be step up to their international responsibilities and take appropriate action.

Kirsty Brimelow Q.C.

Chair, Bar Human Right Committee

REPORT ON THE IMPEACHMENT OF SRI LANKA’S CHIEF JUSTICE

Conducted for the Human Rights Committee of the Bar of England and Wales by

GEOFFREY ROBERTSON QC

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