Those who violate SC rules are traitors - PM

Uditha Kumarasinghe and Irangika Range

Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka told Parliament yesterday the lawyers who appeared for the Sunday Leader newspaper, which has made a treacherous comparison between true patriot Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and murderous Prabhakaran are real traitors.

The Premier said: Persons who violate the country’s Constitution and the Supreme Court rules are traitors to the national cause irrespective of the profession they hold. Therefore any lawyer, doctor or an ordinary citizen could be described as a traitor if he or she violates the country’s constitution.”

The Prime Minister was making a reply speech to a statement made by the Chief Opposition Whip Joseph Michael Perera who said the Defence Ministry website in a news item carried had called the lawyers traitors and that was unfair.

After a district court issued an injunction order on Sunday Leader newspaper, the newspaper had promised to refrain from violating the rights of the Defence Secretary publishing malicious reports. But the newspaper had continued to do so.

Despite the court order, the Sunday Leader had made a treacherous comparison between ruthless terrorist leader Prabhakaran and patriot Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

The entire Sri Lankan community and the world recognises the Defence Secretary as a true patriot who was born on Sri Lankan soil after three decades. If the Sunday Leader has done something treacherous, the lawyers who attempt to defend or appear for them are also traitors, he said.

The official website of the Defence Ministry www.defence.lk had rightly called the laywers, who appeared for the Sunday Leader as traitors.

“However, the public and the lawyer community should accept the fact that there should be a sovereign country for the rule of the law and practice of the law,” the Premier said.