Commenting on the Chief Justice impeachment saga, the spokesperson for the US State Department, Victoria Nuland said on Thursday:
"As we said before, we had serious concerns about the actions that were taken to impeach the Chief Justice and the timing of the impeachment and that it raised serious questions about the process and government pressure on the judiciary."
In a statement last month, the State Department urged the government to "guarantee due process, and to ensure that all investigations are conducted transparently and in accordance with the rule of law", and went onto say:
"These latest developments are part of a disturbing deterioration of democratic norms in Sri Lanka, including infringement on the independence of the judiciary. The United States, along with our partners in the international community, continues to urge Sri Lanka to uphold the rule of law and democratic governance and to continue to address outstanding accountability and reconciliation issues."
See here for our editorial on the (ir)relevancy of the saga to Tamil experience of Sri Lankan rule of law.
