CID accused of tapping senior judge’s phones

‘His e-mail was also hacked’

September 26, 2016, 9:50 pm 

Veteran lawyer Hemantha Warnakulasuriya, President’s Counsel, who has been openly criticising attempts at intimidation of the judiciary, has complained to the Bar Council over the weekend of an alleged instance of a "worst kind of judicial interference" whereby the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) bugged the telephones of a senior judge and also hacked his personal email.

While the Bar Council, at its meeting, Chaired by Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) President Geoffrey Alagaratnam, was discussing the question of character assassination of judges by some websites and a section of the print media Warnakulasuriya, quoting a reliable source, stated that following a media report well in advance that the Trial-at-Bar hearing the case against the killers of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, would acquit the accused, with the innuendo that a certain judge was partisan or had been bought over by the accused, the judge’s telephones including his official telephone and his registrar’s telephone in the office, had been tapped.

Thereafter, according to Warnakulasuriya, when the presiding judge at the Trial-at-Bar Shiran Gunarathne decided to acquit the accused, abuse and scorn were heaped on him by some websites.

Citing a series of other similar acts of intimidation against other judges, former Secretary and Deputy President of BASL, therefore, urged the Bar Association to take immediate steps to file legal action if the phone tapping allegation was true.

The leading criminal lawyer also requested that the BASL, after verifying the facts, report the matter to the Inspector General of Police as the information he had was that a senior officer of the CID had done those despicable acts. He said a fundamental rights violation application would be filed for the infringement.

Crishantha Weliamuna of the Transparency International fame, however, said that it was not advisable take on the websites and since the judges had their own association, the Judicial Services Association, it had to deal with the issue.

W. Dayaratne, PC maintained that the Bar had traditionally protected the judiciary and Shirani Bandaranayake’s impeachment was the best example.

BASL President Alagaratnam observed: "Judges have no forum to explain their position to the public. It is mandated that we have a duty by them to protect them against character assassination".

A committee was appointed to inquire and report to the Bar Council on the justiciability of the matters published by some websites and a section of the press.