By Shamindra Ferdinando

Australia has chosen to remain mum on the recently arrested Australian citizen Noel Mudalige though the government says he will be treated as a foreigner.

Authoritative official told The Island that the leader of the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) had given up his Sri Lankan citizenship to become an Australian citizen several years back, and, therefore he should be dealt with according to Sri Lanka’s immigration and emigration laws.

The Australian High Commission declined to comment on Mudalige’s arrest or action taken by the mission to secure his release. An Australian HC official told The Island that the HC wouldn’t comment on such matters.

Well informed sources told The Island that Australia hadn’t raised the issue with the Foreign Ministry.

The government arrested Mudalige on a charge of overstaying visa in the wake of FSP flexing muscles by giving leadership to recent student protests in Colombo. The Australian will be produced before Kegalle Magistrate on Nov. 18.

Authoritative sources emphasised that Mudalige had lost his right to engage in politics in Sri Lanka since he became an Australian citizen.

The Australian High Commission acted swiftly when the Australian of Sri Lankan origin disappeared here after entering the country using Australian passport bearing number N 1016123 on Sept. 4, 2011.

The previous government deported him soon after his arrest in the following year. Then Australian HC Robyn Mudie facilitated the deportation by personally handing over Mudalige’s passport to the police.

Mudalige returned to the country ahead of the last presidential election in January 2015. The previous government facilitated his return by directing the Immigration and Emigration Department to remove the Australian from the ‘black list.’ The FSP had reached an understanding with the previous government in the wake of JVP throwing its weight behind the UNP led campaign to oust then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, sources said.

Consequent to Rajapaksa’s defeat at the January presidential polls, former DNA (Democratic National Alliance) MP Ajith Kumara (Galle District) made representations to the relevant authorities to enable Gunaratnam to stay here. However, the new government indicated that it wasn’t interested in forging an understanding and advised the FSP leader to go.

In the run-up to the last presidential polls, the FSP went to the extent of speculating the possibility of Mudalige being the candidate representing left political parties.

FSP spokesperson Pubudu Jaygoda yesterday told The Island that the party hadn’t informed the Australian HC of the recent arrest though their leader’s disappearance in 2012 was promptly brought to the notice of major diplomatic missions in Colombo including the Australian HC.

Meanwhile, former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, in an interview with Sinhala weekly, Sath Handa in its Nov. 8 edition has claimed that JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake strongly had pushed for Mudalige’s deportation in 2012. Rajapaksa revealed that the JVP cooperated with the previous government to track down Mudalige as the party feared the challenge posed by the FSP.

JVP National List MP Bimal Ratnayake on Saturday called a special media briefing in Colombo to contradict the statement attributed to the former Defence Secretary. Ratnayake insisted that the FSP never posed a threat to the JVP.

FSP spokesman Pubudu Jagoda told the media on Saturday that the JVP had betrayed one of its own. Jagoda lambasted the JVP leader for cooperating with the previous government.

The FSP launched protests in Colombo demanding Mudalige’s immediate release.

A senior official said that the FSP should seek Australian help to facilitate Mudalige’s deportation as soon as possible. But, the question was whether Australia wanted to have him back against the backdrop of his political involvement here, he said.

Courtesy:The Island