Ex-Lanka president Gotabaya faces possible arrest as Easter bombings probe intensifies

Four years after being toppled by mass protests over Sri Lanka’s economic collapse, the country's former president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who oversaw the destruction of the Tamil Tigers, faces possible arrest for alleged complicity in the deadly Easter Day bombings of April 2019 that killed more than 260 people and left several hundred more injured.

Most Sri Lankans who had dismissed the chances of Gotabaya even being quizzed as a joke now have their fingers crossed after seeing how legendary former spymaster Suresh Sallay, in custody since February on similar charges, has been forced to go on hunger strike, alleging torture.

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In a country where powerful politicians and politically connected rarely face prison, the dramatic developments linked to the bloodbath of 2019 have sharply divided the public mood.

Gotabaya's lawyers move court

In a tacit recognition of the real and imminent danger, Gotabaya’s lawyers have moved the court praying that he should not be arrested under the Prevention of Terrorist Act (PTA), a draconian legislation dating back to 1979, which gives sweeping powers to security forces.

Sallay was taken into custody under the same PTA, a legal instrument which has been used until now dominantly against Tamils, Muslims and members of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which is in power in the island-nation now.

At the heart of the almost unbelievable saga are claims by a Sri Lankan Muslim, widely known as Azad Maulana, who told officials in Switzerland, while seeking asylum, that Sallay told Islamists to trigger explosions in churches and hotels on fateful Easter Day.

The devastating terror attacks in which foreigners were also killed, were claimed by the Islamic State and executed by its Sri Lankan wing, according to prosecutors and various investigations, both Sri Lankan and foreign.

But if Maulana is to be believed, Sallay pushed the Islamists to commit mass murder because he wanted a fear psychosis to grip the country so that Gotabaya, who enjoyed the image of a macho, could storm to power.

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It did happen. Gotabaya, the younger brother of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, swept the presidential elections held months later in November. He lost no time in picking Sallay, a liberal Muslim and a career intelligence officer, to head the State Intelligence Service (SIS), the country’s main intelligence agency.

Maulana’s explosive charges remained murmurs in Sri Lanka until Britain’s Channel 4 broadcast them in 2023, causing a political earthquake. By then, Gotabaya had quit the presidency amid an unprecedented financial crisis.

Besides Sallay, Maulana also blamed Tamil Tiger-turned-politician, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan, for the 2019 carnage. Both men angrily denied the allegations. Maulana worked for Pillaiyan, who has been the chief minister of the Eastern Province and is now in prison on unrelated murder charges.

The JVP, with the backing of the Catholic Church, which insists there was a larger conspiracy in the Easter bombings, gave oxygen to Maulana’s theme and repeatedly vowed to bring the “real guilty” to justice.

Less than two years after the JVP stormed to power, Sallay — once the most powerful person in Sri Lanka’s security apparatus — was dramatically arrested in February.

In custody, he alleged mental and physical torture. He began an indefinite hunger strike on June 5 after he was reportedly served dinner on a piece of paper, not in a plate. The strike has continued since, and Sallay has faced health complications.

His family says he is on saline and remains weak in an isolation ward of the government-run National Hospital in Colombo, to which he was shifted on June 7. “Doctors are doing everything to save his life,” says his wife Manori, who earned a management degree from Delhi University.

Netizens split over Sallay's detention

The social media is divided between those who hail the detention of Sallay, who is known to have used harsh methods as the intelligence chief, and those who feel he is being framed for political reasons.

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A well-informed note in circulation in Colombo, authored by an unnamed intelligence officer, insists there is no proof against Sallay or Gotabaya. “If there had been, it would have been out now.”

Rajapaksas' party alleges bigger controversy

A former MP from the Rajapaksa brothers’ Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party told The Federal that the real aim of the JVP government was to arrest Gotabaya and smear the political standing of the Rajapaksas.

“The JVP knows the SLPP may have been battered in the last election, but it is the most powerful political force in the country and can replace them one day,” he said, requesting anonymity. “They want to kill the SLPP.”

Government ministers have thundered in parliament that they have enough evidence to convict Sallay and the guilty “political masters”. But no proof has been presented either to the public or the judiciary.

The case has thrown up some bizarre questions.

Before the Easter attacks, the Indian intelligence thrice warned Sri Lankan authorities about the imminent bombings. The inputs included the identity of the attackers, the venues where the bombs would go off, and even the date of the planned slaughter.

The role of Shani Abeysekara

Most mysteriously, the Indian warnings were ignored. One of the men blamed for the mess was Shani Abeysekara, who headed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

After Gotabaya became the president, Abeysekara was first demoted and then arrested. He remained in prison despite a heart attack and contracting the COVID-19 virus.

Later, he joined the National People’s Power (NPP) alliance, at whose heart lies the JVP. After the JVP formed a government, Abeysekara was brought back from retirement. He now again heads the same CID.

It is CID personnel who are accused of torturing Sallay. The agency denies this.

According to Colombo grapevine, Abeysekara blames Sallay and Gotabaya for his trauma when they wielded absolute power.

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None of the investigations which probed the Easter attacks, including that by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have named Sallay even as a suspect. One Sri Lankan probe gave no weightage to Maulana’s claims.

But Maulana, who lives in Europe, insists that he attended secret meetings where Sallay told the Islamists to spill blood. Abeysekara recently flew to France to meet Maulana.

Gotabaya seeks shield from draconian law he once backed

Sallay was incidentally attending a months-long National Defence College course in New Delhi when the bombs went off in 2019. He has stated that he was abroad when he was supposed to have liaised with the Islamists.

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On June 3, a court, acting on a government request, imposed an overseas travel ban on Gotabaya — just as it was done in the case of Sallay before his arrest. Gotabaya has dubbed the charges against him as “absurd”.

Now, less than two weeks later, the former president has petitioned through an attorney seeking an order restraining investigators from arresting him under the PTA, the same legislation which he defended again and again while in power.

The court has not fixed a date to hear Gotabaya’s application.