Notorious AG/45/2010 file to the fore again!

Wednesday, 25 February 2015 

The AG/45/2010 file that the attorney general’s department had dealt with in the past six years, with the mediation of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, under whom that particular department functioned, has come to the limelight once again.

This file details the former internal trade minister Johnston Fernando’s having aided and abetted, for a fee of Rs. 50 million, an LTTE suicide bomber who had come to assassinate the ex-president.

The CID filed a ‘B’ report to the Colombo magistrate’s court regarding this matter for the first time in January 2009. According to the B/7465/01/2009 complaint, the suicide bomber had been accommodated at the Madiwela MP’s quarters of Johnston Fernando.

The plan was for three suicide bombers, namely Sivarasa Subha Krishnan, Thawarajasingham Subhash and Linton Chandrashan, on the orders of one Rajesh who had been in exile, to target Mahinda Rajapaksa, with the support of Johnston Fernando, at  a place frequented by the ex-president, including at no: 16, Gregory’s Road, Colombo 07. Had that plan failed, there was a standby plan to target him at a location when Mahinda Rajapaksa was to come and watch his sons practise rugby.

For the entire contract, the LTTE had promised Johnston a sum of Rs. 50 million, and he had received a Rs. 10 million advance inside his vehicle when he had come to Fort Bo tree to take charge of the bombers. In addition, the military intelligence was able to record telephone conversations Johnston Fernando had with the bombers and with Rajesh. Present external affairs minister Mangala Samaraweera, at a media briefing then, issued this voice tape to the media.

It was our website that first revealed the entire incident in the late 2009.

A UNP MP at that time, Johnston Fernando was forced, by showing him this file and threatening him, to support Mahinda Rajapaksa in order to strengthen his hands. This file was also used by the then defence secretary to make Johnston Fernando go before the military tribunal to give evidence against Gen. Sarath Fonseka to the effect that he had engaged in politics while in the Army. It was not due to his generosity to pardon his enemies that the former president had cohabited with and even done businesses with a person who had plotted to assassinate him, but because he had received the Rs. 10 million the LTTE had given to Johnston Fernando, it was well known at the time.