Former Sri Lankan President, and accused war criminal, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been accused of blocking investigations into the Easter Sunday bombings, which claimed the lives of 269 people.
In a landmark documentary, Channel 4 interviews a whistle-blower who alleges that the plan was orchestrated to enable Rajapaksa to seize upon the instability and secure the presidency in the 2019 elections.
Ravi Seneviratne, the former director general of police who initially led the Easter attacks investigation, maintains that once in office, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government “prevented the investigation”.
The Channel 4 whistle-blower further alleged that he helped an intelligence officer with close ties to the Rajapaksa clan to meet with members of the local Islamist militant group, National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), that carried out the attack.
The Guardian reports that under Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Seneviratne’s entire team at CID was taken off the case. More than 20 of his officers were transferred without his approval and travel bans were imposed on all 700 CID officers.
Seneviratne notes:
“The motive was to make them too scared to send a message. Many were too scared to work and some people even applied for transfers out of CID”.
The Guardian further notes that those involved in the investigation have been told this month that there was a conspiracy to murder former head of Sri Lanka’s CID, Shani Abeysekara, who was overseeing the Easter Sunday attack.
Abeysekara has publicly alleged that prior to the attack – the CID were already investigating NTJ militants and that – state and military intelligence officers had sabotaged the investigation and “fabricated” evidence to divert investigators away from the group.
He has also alleged that his attempts to raise the issue of NTJ militants with the national security council had been obstructed.
The Guardian notes that despite over 200 people being charged in the investigation, thus far no one has been convicted. Furthermore, there has been no explanation as to how high-level warnings over the attack have been ignored.
Sri Lanka’s defence ministry continues to deny any involvement in the attack.
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