President Maithripala Sirisena held a ‘cordial’ discussion with the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) mandated to probe the Easter Sunday terror attacks, where he had clarified matters for nearly two and half hours, Chairperson of the Committee and Deputy Speaker Ananda Kumarasiri said.
“We wanted to get a clarification from the President on many matters particularly stemming from other testimonies where he (President) had been mentioned,” the Deputy Speaker said. “In one instance, the statement given by the IGP Pujith Jayasundara to the Malalgoda Committee deferred from the one he had given before the PSC and hence we wanted to get a clarification on those matters.” Kumarasiri added that the President also shared a copy of Justice Malalgoda’s report, which was compiled immediately following the terror attacks.
Justice Vijith Malalgoda headed a three-member committee appointed by the President to investigate the lapses which led to the attacks on Easter Sunday and to make necessary recommendations.
When the three member Committee comprising of Justice Malalgoda, former Defence Secretary Padmasiri Jayamanne and former IGP N.K.Illangakoon was summoned before the PSC they told the committee that copies of their report had been given to the President and the national archives.
However, the archives no longer had the copy of the report as it had been shredded while voice records of the witnesses were deleted from recorders under the supervision of a specialist. Hence, the committee when summoned before the PSC could not share a copy of their report. “The President was kind enough to share a copy of Justice Malalgoda’s report with us. We found that some of the recommendations were similar to us and we will be looking at ways to amalgamate both recommendations from their report and ours. No other part of their report will be made public.”
Chairperson Kumarasiri declined to provide further details on the President’s statement to the PSC adding that the verbatim statement would be made available in the PSC report when it is filed. The PSC term has been extended by Parliament until October 31 this year.
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