Presidential Commission Aids Criminal Cover-Up: Army Intelligence Secures Files On Key CID Investigations

FEBRUARY 29, 2020

The controversial Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCOI) on political victimization has aided and abetted efforts by the Directorate of Military Intelligence to obtain copies of files on highly sensitive investigations conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department, authoritative sources told Colombo Telegraph.

The PCOI last week issued an order that files pertaining to cases before the Commission should be obtained from law enforcement agencies for perusal. The case files are being copied by CID officials in the building. Military intelligence officials who have no role to play in the work of the Presidential Commission are being dispatched to retrieve the copies, Colombo Telegraph learns. Sources told Colombo Telegraph that the files were handed over to army intelligence officers by an OIC in the Homicide Branch of the CID.

Case files pertaining to the murder of rugby player Wasim Thajudeen, the assassination of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge, the abduction of Prageeth Ekneligoda and the case involving the abduction and murder of 11 boys by a navy intelligence gang among others have already been copied and removed from the CID, Colombo Telegraph reliably learns.

Dozens of military intelligence officials have been implicated in grave crimes including murder and abduction of journalists and political dissidents between 2005-2015, including the assassination of Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, the abduction and torture of journalist Keith Noyahr and the daytime attack on Rivira Editor Upali Tennakoon only days after Wickrematunge’s murder. Commanding Officer of a military intelligence corps operating out of the Giritale Army Camp Lt. Colonel Shammi Kumararatne and eight other army intelligence personnel under his command have been indicted by the Attorney General in the High Court over the abduction of Prageeth Eknaligoda, who was a vocal critic of the Rajapaksa regime.

The Directorate of Military Intelligence which won protection through President Maithripala Sirisena during the Yahapalanaya Government when these cases were under investigation by the CID, has regularly stonewalled efforts by CID detectives to obtain documents in the possession of the military about the criminal suspects on their payroll, Colombo Telegraph can reveal. For years, the DMI has been intent on retrieving information gathered by the CID over the course of their investigations into high profile cases that have implicated army intelligence officers.

Wasantha Karannagoda who serves as an advisor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa is evading summons as an accused in the navy abductions case

Now, the military intelligence officers implicated in these grave crimes have found a powerful new friend in the current occupant of President’s House, who has himself been named as the commander of the 2005-2014 era death squads and has been trying to evade accountability for the same atrocities for five years. In the Ekneligoda abduction case, at least two former intelligence officials have provided confessions before a magistrate that Gotabaya Rajapaksa who then served as Defence Secretary, gave the order for Prageeth Ekneligoda’s abduction but the current President was never even questioned about this connection by the AG before the case went to trial late last year.

DKP Dassanayake accused in navy abductions trial promoted as Rear Admiral by Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Colombo Telegraph learns that the information contained in these case files will be valuable to military intelligence officials who will need alibis and other cover from their senior officers to evade justice for their crimes. The information contained in the CID files will also reveal which document trails will need to be manipulated or destroyed in order to stall the investigations and prevent prosecutions of army intelligence officials.

The Presidential Commission that aided this leak of sensitive case files to army intelligence was appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to scrutinize ongoing criminal cases in order to determine whether investigations into several Rajapaksa aligned military top brass and former Rajapaksa era officials had been politically motivated by the Yahapalanaya Government.

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