The arrest was made with 'mala fide' intent : Petitioner
By Shehan Chamika Silva
Attorney-at-law Hejaaz Hizbullah, who was arrested and is currently being detained by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) over an alleged link with the Easter Sunday suicide bombers, has filed a Fundamental Rights (FR) Petition in Supreme Court over the violation of his constitutional rights stating his arrest was made with ‘mala fide’ intent by the Police.
The Petition has been filed by Attorney-at-Law Gowry Shangary Thavarasha on behalf of the Mr. Hizbullah naming Acting IGP Chandana Wickremaratne, SSP W. Thilakaratne(the CID Director), CI Karunatilaka (CID), Ms. Deepani Menike (CID), Mihindu Abeysinghe (CID), and the Attorney General as respondents.
The Petition states that when Mr. Hizbullah was arrested by the CID, no reasons for the arrest were provided to Mr. Hizbullah or his family, yet conducting two press conferences the police have informed the public that Mr. Hizbullah is “suspected of involvement” in the Easter Sunday Terror attacks and the focus of the investigation was that Mr. Hizbullah had formed youth organizations with the suicide bombers through which extremism had been spread. The petition also states that the Police took these steps without even seeking advice from the Attorney General.
Subsequent to that, the ‘petition states that despite numerous requests, Mr. Hizbullah had been denied access to lawyers in a manner contrary to law by the CID officials even though Mr. Hizbullah had repeatedly said that “there was evidence which would exonerate him completely”.
Petition also states that after the arrest Mr. Hizbullah should have been produced before a Magistrate as the ‘detention order’ is not acceptable in law because it has not been issued by the Minister of Defence, hence the detention is unlawful.
The Petitioner states that Mr. Ibrahim and his sons (Easter attack suicide bombers) were known to be extremely wealthy and successful businessmen and Mr. Hizbullah did not know and could not have known what would transpire subsequently.
According to the petition, Mr. Hizbullah was retained by Mr. Mohomed Yusuf Mohomed Ibrahim who was a renowned and award-winning spice trader to represent him in land related civil cases bearing No. DLM 05/10 and DSP 236/09 in the District Court of Colombo. Mr. Hizbullah was also a Trustee in a Trust named “Save The Pearls” of which the object is to serve vulnerable and/or orphaned children. In the latter part of 2018, Mr. Hizbullah was appointed the President.
The Petitioner states that, Mr. Ibrahim functioned as a Trustee and his son Ilham functioned as the Treasurer until early or mid-2016. Thereafter, Ilham had no further role or involvement whatsoever at Save the Pearls. Further, the monies for the purchase of the Trust property were provided by the Ibrahim family. However, no further substantial funding was provided to “Save the Pearls” by the Ibrahim family.
The Petitioner states that Mr. Hizbullah had no reason whatsoever to suspect that Mr. Ibrahim’s sons would be involved in terrorist activity when Mr. Hizbullah’s involvement in “Save the Pearls” commenced in 2014/2015 or at any time thereafter.
The Petitioner state that following the arrest of Mr. Hizbullah, the officers of the Criminal Investigations Department had visited several children whose education was funded by "Save the Pearls" (alleged youth organizations) and had shown them photographs of some individuals and asked them to identify those individuals. However, the children had not been able to recognize any of them. The Petition states also these children were taken in for questioning without a guardian to an unknown location and had threatened and intimidated to sign on papers to be used against Mr. Hizbullah.
Hence, the petition states that the said arrest and detention is mala fide and is calculated to penalise Mr. Hizbullah for his professional undertakings.
According to the petition, Mr. Hizbullah had appeared over the years in cases such as,
SCFR 226/2019- Fundamental Rights application in respect of alleged hate speech by Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thero,
SCFR 263/2019 - Fundamental Rights application in respect of the arrest and detention of Dr. Shafi,
SCFR 203/2016 – Fundamental Rights application in respect of the Aluthgama Racial riot,
SCFR 97/ 2014 – Fundamental Rights application in respect of Petitioner Muslim student who faced discrimination at her school and
DMR 1041/14 – District Court action for defamation against Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thero.
Therefore, the petitioner states the arrest and detention of Mr. Hizbullah constitute infringements of his fundamental rights guaranteed by Article 11, 12(1), 12(2), 13(1), 13(2), 13(3), 14(1)(a), 14(1)(c), 14(1)(e), 14(1)(g), and 17 of the Constitution.
Hence, the petition seeks to issue interim orders directing Respondents to permit lawyers to have access to Mr. Hizbullah and immediately produce him before a magistrate until the hearing and final determination of the FR petition.
It also seeks to declare that the arrest and detention of Mr. Hizbullah violate his fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution, thereby declare that the arrest and detention are unlawful, void ab initio and of no force or effect in law.
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