Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Kulasiri Udugampola on the mat! [Lanka Truth 29th January 2004]

The Supreme Court decided that the raid on the Millennium City safe house violated the fundamental rights of those army Intelligence Officers who were stationed there at the time.
ASP Kulasiri Udugampola with several others, on instructions of the UNP, raided this army safe house in year 2001 claiming that it was an illegal arsenal maintained to assassinate Premier Ranil Wickremasinghe and arrested those who were there.
The case was filed by five Army intelligence officers alleging that their fundamental rights were violated by being arrested even when they had stated that they were regular personnel of the Army and they were maintaining a legal intelligence unit of the Army.
Supreme Court Judge Ms. Shirani Bandaranayake stated that by arresting the members of the safe house maintained by the Army was done with a political interest and this action violated the fundamental rights of those officers.
Kulasiri Udugampola was ordered to pay from his own funds Rs.50,000/- and the government was ordered to pay Rs.7,50,000/- for each petitioner.
Army Commander has already taken disciplinary action against a Major General, two Colonels and a Major on this incident.