Search Results for: rajapaksa

The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) on Wednesday released a report detailing incidents of torture by Sri Lankan police and military against political prisoners, just days ahead of a UN summit on human rights. The ITJP took statements from 15 ethnic Tamilians who were illegally detained and tortured since the government of former defense [...]

Officials in Sri Lanka announced plans this weekend to ban burqas in public and close more than 1,000 Islamic schools. These policies are the latest in a string of decisions targeting the country’s Muslim minority. Citing national security concerns, Sri Lanka’s public security minister Sarath Weerasekera signed papers for cabinet approval of the ban on [...]

The Parliament of Sri Lanka Thursday passed the Twentieth Amendment to the country’s constitution, repealing a past administration’s limitations on presidential powers and expansion of parliamentary powers. The amendment has raised concerns that authoritarian President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s power has become unbounded. The amendment was passed in the Sri Lankan House by a vote of 156-65. [...]

A democracy is balanced mainly on the supremacy of law as no one is above law. The recent development in this month raising a serious threat towards the doom of democracy. The loggerhead battle and the shuffle up of the whole country was witnessed by the whole world in the last two years. Now, a [...]

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday pardoned former army sergeant Sunil Ratnayake, who was sentenced to death for killing eight Tamil civilians during the country’s civil war. After a 13-year trial, the Colombo High Court found Ratnayake guilty of eight civilian murders and sentenced him to death in June 2015. The Supreme Court upheld [...]

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa announced Wednesday that his country will withdraw from co-sponsorship of a 2015 UN resolution which sought to investigate war crimes committed on the island during the country’s civil war. It is believed the move is a response to the US imposing a travel ban on Sri Lanka’s army commander [...]

Mahinda Rajapaksa, appointed Prime Minister of Sri Lanka last month, has been barred from taking office by a Colombo court’s order on Monday. The Appeals Court asked that he reappear by December 12 with justification for his taking office since Parliament voted against him twice and announced that no cabinet could function under him if [...]

The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka on Tuesday overturned the president’s decision to dissolve parliament and called for a halt in preparations for a snap election on January 5. Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena dissolved parliament because he lacked the support to install the prime minister of his choice, Mahinda Rajapaksa, after firing the previous [...]

Amnesty International India (AII) said Sunday that a meeting between Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi should emphasize justice and the rule of law. Sirisena is traveling to India on...

The newly elected government in Sri Lanka announced Wednesday that it is planning to investigate accusations of human rights abuses during the closing stages of the 26-year civil war, after former president Mahinda Rajapaksa refused to cooperate...