Sri Lankan judges, lawyers boycott courts to protest minister’s threat to judge

The Sri Lankan judiciary came to a grinding halt on Friday as judges and lawyers boycotted the judicial proceedings island-wide, after a top cabinet minister of the Rajapaksa government threatened a district court judge, demanding him to overturn a judgement he delivered earlier this week with regard to a local fishing issue.

This was followed by a violent mob attack on the court complex on Wednesday in protest of the judgment, with the protesters pelting stones at the court complex, causing extensive damages to the windows of the court house, whilst attacking the police personnel attached to the anti-riot squads.

According to judicial sources, Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Badiuddin has contacted the Mannar District Court Judge A. Judeson via telephone on Tuesday night (17) and threatened him using foul language to overturn the judgement in favour of the Muslim fishermen to avoid Mannar being set ablaze.

While the protest in the Mannar town was turning violent and the court house was coming under the mob attack, Minister Badiuddin has contacted the District Court Judge again over the phone around noon on Wednesday and told him that what he was witnessing was what he challenged to do during his previous telephone conversation.

Additional police protection has been provided to the Mannar court complex to the District Court Judge following these violent incidents.

Dispute over fishing harbour facility

Tamil Christian fishermen and their families who were displaced from Vidathaltivu to Joseph Vaas village in the north-western Mannar district have been using the Konthaipiddi fishing harbour facilities for a very long time amid tough fishing restrictions. But, the Muslim fishermen who were settled in the village of Uppukkulam after the end of the war have been harassing and often attacking the properties of the Joseph Vaas fishermen, preventing them from using the facilities of the Konthaipiddi fishing harbour.  

Delivering a judgement on the often violent dispute over the usage of Konthaipiddi fishing harbour facilities by the displaced war victims, the Mannar District Court Judge ordered on Tuesday (17) that the fishermen of the nearby Joseph Vaas fishing village should be allowed to use the facilities of Konthaipiddi fishing harbour until they are given a separate fishing harbour.

Judge Judeson also ordered the relevant authorities and the police to ensure that the fishermen of Joseph Vaas carry out their livelihood using the facilities of Konthaipiddi fishing harbour without any threat or intimidation.         

BASL calls for the arrest of Minister Badiuddin

Angered by the attack and intimidation on the judicial staff and the judicial independence, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has requested the Attorney General to initiate necessary action to arrest Minister Badiuddin and other suspects who were involved in the mob attack on the Mannar Courts complex.

President of the BASL Wijedasa Rajapaksa has made this request to the Attorney General when he held an urgent meeting with him at his office on Friday. The BASL is also contemplating to file a case against the Minister in the Court of Appeal on the grounds of interfering with the independence of judiciary and contempt of court.

There was no immediate reaction from the government in this regard.

Support protest opposite Maradana mosque

Meanwhile, supporters of Minister Rishad Badiuddin and fishermen brought from Uppukkulam staged a protest opposite the Grand Mosque in Maradana, Colombo on Friday.

Claiming that it was Minister Badiuddin who had resettled them in their native villages in the Mannar district after the forceful eviction by the Tamil Tiger rebels in 1990s, the Muslim protesters have charged that similar efforts were being taken to drive them out of these villages once again.

© JDS