Sandya Ekneligoda’s decade long fight for justice: Ekneligoda Forum and web site launched in Colombo

ON the 11th year of Prageeth Ekneligoda abduction and disappearance Sandaya Ekneligoda launched a new initiative launching Ekneligoda Forum and https://ekneligodaforum.org/.

Ekneligoda Forum is a collective that strives to ensure justice to Prageeth Ekneligoda and for every Sri Lankan who have been victimized by the heinous crime of enforced disappearance. As collective we are dedicated to archive Prageeth’s work and make them accessible to the general public, as well as the archive the struggle for truth and justice for Prageeth and similar struggles of the victims of enforced disappearance in Sri Lanka. 

Prageeth Eknaligoda, journalist, cartoonist and political activist, disappeared on 24 January 2010, somewhere between 8.30 and 9.30 pm on his way to a meeting with an acquaintance unknown to his friends or family. On the day of his disappearance, Prageeth had left home in the morning and had not returned home by 9.30pm.

Following an earlier abduction, if Prageeth was not home by that time, Sandya his wife had made it a habit to call him, to check whether he has left his office or not and how near or far from home he was. On the night of the 24th, Sandya called him every half an hour throughout the night to both his mobile numbers to only keep hearing the pre-recorded message that his phone was switched off.

The next morning, she went to the local police station in Homagama. The senior inspector was initially reluctant to record her complaint and told her that he needs to speak with the Officer in Charge. When the Officer in Charge entered the room, he first made a joke of Sandya’s complaint, saying that her husband must be at home, and that she should go home, adding that “people get abducted to become popular”. Sandya refuted him, saying: “my husband Prageeth Eknaligoda need not get lost to become popular. He did not write to become popular but because of a sense of social responsibility.” The Homagama police eventually took down her (Complaint No. CIB 385/177), but then told her that she ought to have gone to the police station in Koswatte in the first place, as the incident appeared to have occurred there, and that she had wasted their time and cost them a fax as they were now compelled to fax her statement to the Koswatte police. Sandya then went to the Koswatte police, where she was treated with more sympathy by police constables. Yet neither police took an active interest to conduct an inquiry into the case in the days and weeks following her complaint.

On 19th February, she and her two sons filed a habeas corpus application in the Court of Appeal, citing the Deputy Inspector General of the Criminal Investigation Department, the Officer in Charge of the Homagama police, the Inspector General of the Police, the Attorney General and Prageeth Eknaligoda as respondents.2 The Court of Appeal referred to the matter for investigation to the Magistrate’s Court of Homagama (AR 3170/11). Sandya has since dedicated her life to pursue truth and justice for the disappearance of her husband.

From 2010 to 2015 this case hardly made any progress in the Magistrate Court. In fact, every effort was made to undermine the case and cast doubt on the credibility of both Prageeth and Sandya. By 2011, a number of political leaders of the Rajapaksa regime as well as bureaucrats began to claim that Prageeth Ekneligoda was alive and well in a foreign country. In November 2011, Mohan Peiris, the country’s Attorney General and legal advisor to the President and Cabinet of Ministers, in an official question and answer session before the United Nation’s Committee on Torture (CAT), told the CAT Committee that “Mr. Ekneligoda has taken refuge in a foreign country,” and that the campaign to secure the cartoonist’s release was a farce. On 5th June 2013, Arundika Fernando, a member of parliament from the United People’s Freedom Alliance, also told parliament Ekneligoda was living in France.

Despite the widespread criticism in the print and electronic media and a statement made by Sandya that the allegation that Prageeth was living in France was “baseless,” Arundika Fernando. M.P. told the press that he stands by his claim that “journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda is living in France and that it is the complete truth”. Following these statements, Sandya moved the court to summon the public officials claiming to know the whereabouts of Prageeth to share this evidence in court. It took Sandya eight months to summon Mohan Peiris to court. When she first pressed the court, the state counsel objected stating that there was no evidence that such a statement was made. Sandya then produced in court a webcast of the statement made by the AG in Geneva. The state counsel again objected stating video evidence was not admissible in court. Sandya then submitted a written transcript certified by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The state then challenged the validity of the transcript stating that it could not be taken as a true copy and that it was not proper to summon Mr. Mohan Peiris, as he had made the statement about the disappeared journalist’s whereabouts as an official representative of the Government. Junior Counsel for the complainant then moved the court to call a UN representative, to ascertain the validity of the document, if it was not admissible.

These objections were overruled by the Homagama Magistrate. On 17th May, the court ruled that Peiris can be summoned as a witness. The state counsel appearing for the AG challenged the ruling as illegal in the Court of Appeal arguing that Peiris was acting in his capacity as a senior legal advisor to the Cabinet and that what is said on “government orders” and communications where “public interest would suffer” should not be disclosed. It was further argued that Peiris should not be harassed for carrying out government instructions. The Court of Appeal ruled that the Homagama magistrate court was acting on their behalf to hear this case and had the freedom to summon Peiris. The court stated, “Only the President was immune to legal proceedings and may not answer summons by a court of law”. The judge stated that Peiris’s testimony should not be “pre-empted” and clarified that being summoned cannot be regarded as harassment.4 It was 5 June 2012, by the time Mohan Peiris gave his evidence before the Homagama Magistrate’s Court.5 Under cross examination in court, Peiris admitted that he made the statement that investigations are not over and that the Attorney General’s Department had received information and intelligence to the effect that Ekneligoda was living abroad and that if this information is confirmed by their investigations, they will decide whether to file a case. The lawyers for the petitioner, then asked whether Peiris can remember the representative of the AG’s Department or intelligence officer who informed him of such evidence. Peiris responded to the question saying: “No”, and that his “knowledge on this is total hearsay”, adding “I heard them. Only God know the truth of them”.

The Homagama Magistrates court, on the request of Sandya and her lawyers, summoned Arundika Fernando to court on 16th July 2013 and 21 August 2013 after the judge overruled objection to the request that it was in violation of the Minister’s parliamentary privileges. In court, Mr. Fernando admitted he had never seen Prageeth Ekneligoda himself, but that he had made that statement on the trust he had placed on the word of a long lost school friend that he had met on a visit to France in Dec 2011/ Jan 2012.

It was at this stage of the court case that Presidential elections were called in November 2014. Sandya joined the campaign in favour of democracy and the rule of law. Following the defeat of Mahinda Rajapaksa and the election of Maithreepala Sirisena, the case took a completely different turn.