ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s former president Ranil Wickremesinghe has never requested presidential immunity in the controversial bond scam legal process as claimed by Cabinet Spokesman Vijitha Herath, his sources said.
Herath in his first cabinet media briefing on Tuesday (01) said presidential immunity stated in the constitution has been considered for not calling Wickremesinghe to the courts.
“There was no need for former President Ranil Wickramasinghe to request any immunity and in fact the former President has never requested such immunity,” Dhanushka Ramanayake, Wickremesinghe’s Presidential Media Director, said in a statement.
Presidential immunity in the past had allowed past presidents not to be accountable for their wrong decisions or to appear in the courts in legal cases against them.
Hearth responding to a question said Wickremesinghe is also not the president anymore and he did not have immunity.
“That legal case did not proceed because the immunity specified in the constitution was used. Now we have the power to bring him before the courts,” the Cabinet Spokesman said.
Ramanayake in his statement said Herath’s statement was “incorrect”
“The entire public, including the media, is being misled on the basis of that statement made knowingly or unknowingly,” he said.
A presidential commission of inquiry found that Arjuna Mahendran, handpicked for Central Bank Governor post by Wickremesinghe in 2015 had interfered in a bond auction and has leaked inside information to help Perpetual Treasuries, owned by his son in law, to make billions of rupees in profits.
Mahendran raised a policy rate floor outside the regular monetary policy meeting and pressured a tender board to sell bonds at high prices, the inquiry found.
The inquiry also found that Perpetual Treasuries had paid central bank dealers, who were managing the country’s largest pension fund, to buy bonds at high prices and other state funds.
The Presidential Commission later released Wickremesinghe confirming that he had nothing to do with the bond scam, before a legal case was charged against 10 accused Ramanayake said.
“Another point to be emphasized is that former President Ranil Wickramasinghe is not even a witness in this case,” he said.
“In such a background, as a responsible minister and cabinet spokesman, I kindly inform you that it is inappropriate to make false statements knowingly or unknowingly.” (Colombo/October 03/2024)