Major General Prasanna de Silva, Sri Lanka's military attache at the high commission in London, is to return to Sri Lanka in the next few days, amid allegations of war crimes and an increasing moves towards legal action, reported The Guardian newspaper on Thursday.
A spokesperson for Sri Lankan government has refuted any connection between the legal proceedings and Silva's departure, claiming it to be a "routine transfer matter".
Speaking to The Guardian, he said,
"The claim of a lawsuit by the GTF has nothing to do with this routine transfer matter and it appears to be yet another invidious attempt to embarrass both Sri Lankan and British governments and a continuation of GTF's history of attempting to gain misplaced publicity mileage for events it has nothing to do with."
A dossier detailing Silva's alleged involvement in war crimes during the first half of 2009, was submitted to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, on 24th January 2012. The dossier was prepared by the Society for Threatened Peoples Switzerland with the support of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and TRIAL.
See here for ECCHR press statement (05 Apr 2012)
The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) recently instructed solicitors, Birnberg, Peirce and Partners, to launch a judicial review against the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, citing the Foreign Office’s refusal to take action against Silva. A hasty departure would make it likely that Silva evades questioning however.
See here for full report by The Guardian.
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