File photograph: Swiss Ambassador Hanspeter Mock meets with Mahinda Rajapaksa earlier this year.
The Ambassador of Switzerland to Sri Lanka is to meet with Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, over the alleged abduction of an embassy employee, according to diplomatic sources in Colombo.
A Switzerland embassy employee was reportedly abducted in a vehicle, detained for two hours and then released.
The employee was said to have been questioned about Nishantha Silva, head of the organised crimes investigation unit at the CID, who reportedly fled to Switzerland with his family, without the approval of the Sri Lankan police department. The investigator had reportedly been fearing for his security since the election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as Sri Lankan president.
Silva had been credited with pushing through several high profile cases implicating military and state personnel, including the abduction of 11 youths, with 13 navy personnel arrested in connection with the case and senior navy officials pending investigation. He has also been investigating the death of a Tamil detainee in police custody, as well as the assassination of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge.
