{"id":14792,"date":"2013-01-15T11:51:03","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T16:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=14792"},"modified":"2013-01-15T11:51:03","modified_gmt":"2013-01-15T16:51:03","slug":"appointment-of-mohan-peiris-as-new-chief-justice-undermines-rule-of-law-and-accountability-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=14792","title":{"rendered":"Appointment of Mohan Peiris as new Chief Justice Undermines Rule of Law and Accountability in Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>by<\/p>\n<p>International Commission of Jurists<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The appointment of former Attorney General Mohan Peiris  as Sri Lanka\u2019s new Chief Justice raises serious concerns about the future of the Rule of Law and accountability in the country, the International Commission of Jurists(ICJ) said today.<\/p>\n<p>Mohan Peiris has served in a variety of high-level legal posts in the past decade, always playing a key role in defending the conduct of the Sri Lankan government.<\/p>\n<p> <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>He served as Sri Lanka\u2019s Attorney-General from 2009 to 2011. Since then he has served as the legal adviser to President Mahinda Rajapakse and the Cabinet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring his tenure as Attorney-General and the government\u2019s top legal advisor Mohan Peiris consistently blocked efforts to hold the government responsible for serious human rights violations and disregarded international law and standards,\u201d said Sam Zarifi, ICJ\u2019s Asia director.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMohan Peiris\u2019 appointment as the new Chief Justice, after a politically compromised and procedurally flawed impeachment, adds serious insult to the gross injury already inflicted on Sri Lanka\u2019s long suffering judiciary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The International Commission of Jurists, in its recent report on impunity in Sri Lanka, highlighted Mohan Peiris\u2019 lack independence as Attorney-General, noting the alarming number of cases involving prominent politicians that were withdrawn during his tenure.<\/p>\n<p>In November 2011, as Attorney General, Peiris told the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva that political cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda, believed to have been subjected to enforced disappearance in January 2010, had actually left Sri Lanka. In June 2012, Peiris admitted to a court in Colombo that this claim was groundless.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cICJ condemns this appointment as a further assault on the independence of the judiciary and calls on the Sri Lankan government to reinstate Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. If there are grounds for questioning the Chief Justice\u2019s actions, they should be pursued following due process and a proper impeachment process.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton14792\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D14792&amp;text=Appointment%20of%20Mohan%20Peiris%20as%20new%20Chief%20Justice%20Undermines%20Rule%20of%20Law%20and%20Accountability%20in%20Sri%20Lanka&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by International Commission of Jurists The appointment of former Attorney General Mohan Peiris as Sri Lanka\u2019s new Chief Justice raises serious concerns about the future of the Rule of Law and accountability in the country, the International Commission of Jurists(ICJ) said today. Mohan Peiris has served in a variety of high-level legal posts in the &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=14792\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Appointment of Mohan Peiris as new Chief Justice Undermines Rule of Law and Accountability in Sri Lanka&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14793,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14792\/revisions\/14793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}