Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe expressed his dissatisfaction with an interview aired by Al Jazeera yesterday (6 March), questioning the integrity of the panelists who participated.

Speaking to the media shortly after the interview’s release, Wickremesinghe claimed that two of the three panelists who joined broadcaster Mehdi Hasan had pro-LTTE affiliations.

“I was informed that Human Rights Lawyer and former Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Ambika Sathkunanathan, would be part of the interview. I welcomed this, as I have known her despite our ideological differences. However, I later discovered that she had been replaced by two other panelists, whom I was told had pro-LTTE links,” he said.

“This interview was different. When I engage with local media, the interviews are live, with everything—both good and bad—being aired. However, Al Jazeera interviewed me for two hours but released only a one-hour segment. The most important parts were left out,” Wickremesinghe remarked.

“They questioned me about events that occurred under the Rajapaksa administration. I made it clear that I was not in power at the time. I also stated that the Mahanayaka of the Malwathu Chapter is Sri Lanka’s foremost religious leader, while others, including Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, are just religious leaders,” he added.