Heated debate over detained MP Rishad Bathuideen attending Parliament
COLOMBO – A heated debate took place in Parliament on Wednesday (5), in the presence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, over opposition MP Rishad Bathiudeen being allowed to attend the day’s proceedings.
Bathiudeen and his brother Riyaj, arrested on April 24 for alleged links to the 2019 Easter Sunday bombers, are in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for a period of 90 days.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa requested Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to allow the MP to attend Parliament under parliamentary privileges.
Responding to Premadasa’s request, Public Security Sarath Weerasekara asked the Speaker not to let Bathiudeen, who is detained under Sri Lanka’s controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), to attend proceedings.
“The investigation is a matter of national security. If he attends Parliament and reveals sensitive information pertaining to national security using his privileges, it may provide other suspects who have yet to be arrested the opportunity to prepare in advance or even flee the country,” Weerasakara implored.
“It’s unfortunate that its being a matter of national security was not mentioned by the Speaker, the Leader of the House or any other government member at the business committee meeting when this came up for discussion,” Premadasa responded, adding that Bathiudeen supposedly being a close contact of a COVID-19 patient had also been brought up at the meeting but details had not been forthcoming.
The Speaker said he was informed about the MP’s link to a COVID-19, a situation which he claimed has now gotten worse.
“There are two things to be taken up now. We shall discuss them at length and reach a decision,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M. A. Sumanthiran said it was the first time ever a minister has told Parliament that an MP detained using an administrative detention order cannot be brought to Parliament.
“This has never happened in the history of this House,” he said.
“Until an MP is convicted judicially, they don’t lose their seat in Parliament. If what Minister Weerasekara says is law, then someone can be administratively detained on suspicion for three months and lose his seat,” Sumanthiran pointed out.
He called on the president and the prime minister to speak up and clarify the government’s position on the matter, warning that otherwise a precedent will be set where any political opponent can be detained without being found guilty and lose his parliamentary seat.
-economynext.com