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SRI LANKA
CASE N° SRI/61 - THIYAGARAJAH MAHESWARAN

Resolution adopted unanimously by the IPU Governing Council at its 186th session
(Bangkok, 1 April 2010)

The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of Mr. Thiyagarajah Maheswaran, a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka who was assassinated on 1 January 2008, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/186/12(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 185th session (October 2009); referring also to the report on the mission to Sri Lanka it carried out in February 2008 (CL/183/12(b)-R.2),

Taking into account the police report forwarded by the Parliament of Sri Lanka on 18 March 2010,

Recalling that Mr. Maheswaran voted against the budget on 14 December 2007 and soon after the vote the number of security guards assigned to him was cut from 18 to two; he had openly made several statements to the effect that the reduction of his security detail put his life seriously at risk and had made repeated requests to the Government to enhance his security, to no avail; on 1 January 2008, while attending a religious ceremony in a Hindu temple in Colombo, he was shot and later died in a Colombo hospital; the attack came after he had stated in a television interview that, at the resumption of parliamentary sittings on 8 January 2008, he would describe in detail the terror campaign that the Government was pursuing in Jaffna, particularly how abductions and killings were managed,

Recalling that the authorities arrested Johnson Colin Valentirio alias "Wasantha", from Jaffna, who had been identified as the gunman on the strength of a DNA analysis; the investigators concluded that the assailant was a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) activist who had been specifically sent to Colombo to kill Mr. Maheswaran; according to the police progress report forwarded in August 2008, the Attorney General filed an indictment and the case was to be called on 19 August 2008; according to the police report of October 2009, the case was to be called on 16 October 2009 for serving of the indictment and listing of the case for hearing; considering that, according to the police report of March 2010, the case is now proceeding and evidence of some of the witnesses was heard in court, and the case was fixed for further trial on 22 March 2010,

Bearing in mind that, since the defeat of the LTTE, President Rajapakse was re-elected in January 2010; that he dissolved parliament on 28 March 2010 and announced elections for 8 April and the convening of the new parliament for 22 April 2010,

  1. Thanks the parliamentary authorities and the police for the information provided;

  2. Notes with satisfaction that the indictment was filed and that the trial is now under way; earnestly hopes that the proceedings will fully elucidate the murder of Mr. Maheswaran, in particular the identity of the instigators and the motives for the crime; wishes to be kept informed of the proceedings;

  3. Requests the Secretary General to convey this resolution to the new parliamentary authorities, inviting them to monitor the proceedings in this case; requests him further to convey the resolution to the competent governmental authorities, inviting them to keep it informed of the proceedings;

  4. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session, to be held on the occasion of the 123rd IPU Assembly (October 2010).
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