His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith: “The decision of the court order on the Easter Sunday attack shows that the law in this country can punish any person even the president”

His Eminence stated that “the law in this country has shown that any person even if it is the president or any other high official can be punished for behaving in an illegal fashion”, at the press conference held today (13). 

It is not the amount of money that needs to be paid to the innocent victims for the loss of their loved ones which is important but the court order shows people who have been depending on the taxpayers’ money and have held high positions have neglected their duties and is responsible for the Easter Sunday attack.

Former Attorney General Mr. Dappula de Livera once stated that “There is a conspiracy behind the Easter attack and it should be investigated.”

The judgment given will be a great opening for us to start off looking into all the other aspects of this case further stated by His Eminence.

He also stated that the Church is unhappy about the immunity given to the president. “Why should he need immunity? Every citizen is subjected to the law and not even the president cannot violate the law of the country because he is elected by the people”.

“One year ago on 11th January 2022, a hand grenade was found at the Borella All Saints' Church premises but still, there is no progress has happened in this case which shows the weakness of the implementation of the law. We hope that with this judgment a new era for the freedom of the law will commence ” he added.

We will now continue our process to get justice for 272 people who lost their lives including 82 children and 42 foreigners. The tourism industry completely collapsed with this incident leading to the present crisis in SL.

Those who are linked with Zaharan Hashim’s group must be investigated to find the truth behind the attack.

This is the beginning and we are very happy that the learned judges gave us such hope for the future of SL.

Rev. Fr. Cyril Gamini (Archbishop’s Spokesperson), Mr. Shammil Perera PC (Archbishop’s Lawyer), and Mr. Duthika Perera (Lawyer) also participated in the conference.

Photos by Akila Peiris

Report by Waruni Ranasinghe

Meda Unit, Aquinas College

13.01.2023