Sri Lanka’s Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has filed a petition against the appointment of an officer accused in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings as the island nation’s top cop.
The 76-year-old cardinal on March 12 moved the Supreme Court, the top court in the country, to challenge the appointment of Deshabandu Tennekoon as the Inspector General of Police (IGP) by acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The cardinal was joined by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a leading public policy research group, which filed a separate petition challenging the appointment as “unlawful.”
Both Ranjith and the CPA in their petitions pointed out that the appointment was not approved by the Constitutional Council, which is mandatory.
“Therefore, the president’s appointment of Tennakoon is unlawful. The Supreme Court must nullify the decision,” said the petitions, which named the speaker, attorney general, and the IGP as respondents.
It is legally binding that at least five of the eight members of the Constitutional Council must vote in favor of the appointment.
Tennekoon’s appointment on Feb. 26 received only four votes in its favor, falling short of the required five.
Two members voted against his nomination while two others were absent.
But Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena ruled it as a tie and used his casting vote favoring the nomination to clear the appointment of Tennekoon.
Law experts said the crucial fifth vote was cast by the speaker, who, according to Sri Lanka’s Constitution, is ineligible to vote unless there is a tie.
“Since there was no tie, the speaker’s vote cannot be valid,” opined G. L. Peiris, a former lawmaker and professor of law at Colombo University,
Tennakoon was promoted to the post of acting IGP by Wickremasinghe on Nov. 29, 2023, despite the Presidential Commission of Inquiry that probed the deadly 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, indicting him for failing to prevent them.
The simultaneous explosions in three churches and three luxury hotels in Colombo left 273 people including foreign nationals dead and more than 500 injured.
Then, in January 2022, a live grenade was found inside All Saints Church in Borella in Colombo. But Tennakoon’s team failed to arrest the suspect.
Earlier, in 2010, Tennakoon was convicted of violating fundamental rights by torturing an ex-army soldier. The Supreme Court asked him to pay compensation.
Lawmaker Iran Wickramaratne said an accused person should not be appointed as the top cop in the country.
Taridu Jayawardena, a journalist and rights defender, criticized the president for appointing an officer accused of violating fundamental rights to the top post.
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