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Sri Lanka's anti-graft commission to issue fresh summons on ex-president

Xinhua, May 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

Sri Lanka's anti-graft commission is to issue fresh summons on former president Mahinda Rajapakse to question him over bribery allegations, local media reported on Sunday.

The Bribery or Corruption Commission had earlier issue a notice on Rajapakse in April, which however led to protests by the opposition in and outside the parliament.

The former leader, who was accused of bribing a former member of the ruling United National Party to join him ahead of the January elections, did not appear before the commission after Parliament Speaker Chamal Rajapakse summoned the commission chief and questioned the notice.

Director General of the Bribery Commission Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe told the local Leader newspaper on Sunday that interrogation of the former president has not been withheld and will be carried out soon.

Wickramasinghe said the delay in getting statements from Rajapakse was not due to opposition lawmakers' agitation in the parliament but a number of government holidays in May.

Referring to the allegations leveled against her by the opposition that she has no mandate to ask a former president to come to the commission for interrogation, Wickramasinghe said every citizen in Sri Lanka irrespective of their status or positions is equal before the law.

"If the parliamentarians think that the law of this land cannot be imposed on rich and powerful but only against poor and frail, then it is up to the legislative council that should pass that law, " Wickramasinghe said. Endi