Cabinet Spokesperson Nalinda Jayatissa today (29 April) refuted the allegations of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has access to letters from the Bribery Commission. Jayatissa clarified that the information about Wickremesinghe being summoned to the Commission was already public when the President made his statement.
He was responding to a journalist during the weekly Cabinet media briefing.
Q: “We saw yesterday that the former President is accusing the government, saying he was summoned to the Bribery Commission and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake made a statement about the contents of the summoning letter in a public rally. Now, the Bribery Commission is said to be an independent body. Is it now under the Presidential Secretariat? Otherwise, how is the current President reading those letters?”
A: “He made that statement after appearing before the Commission on 11 April. He himself mentioned on his social media accounts that he would not be able to attend on 17 April, which was the Commission’s original date. The Commission had summoned him for 17 April. So, he said on the night of 11th that he couldn’t attend on that date. So I think this is public information. I didn’t get this information from the President. Maybe Ranil Wickremesinghe, the former President, forgot what he himself said. That can happen, and it’s natural. But this isn’t something unusual. The Bribery Commission didn’t send this information to the current President. Everyone knows this. On the night of 11th, it was known that he couldn’t go to the Bribery Commission on 17 April. The President made his statement on 12 April, after Wickremesinghe posted about it on social media.”
“If you look at the way the President made his statement, he said something like, ‘I saw now that a letter has been sent saying the former President will not attend.’ Then the President is just referring to that. It was public information, and Ranil Wickremesinghe himself posted on his social media and also made a statement. The President is only referring to that public statement. He’s not saying it’s from any internal or secret source.”
