Sri Lankan police probe death threat to lawyer

Colombo: The Sri Lankan police on Thursday launched a probe into an allegation by a lawyer activist, who opposed the impeachment of the country`s first woman chief justice, that he had received death threat.

JC Weliamuna, a member of the Lawyers` Collective a group which backed Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, had complained of a written death threat. "Weliamuna has lodged a written complaint at the Kohuwela police (a Colombo suburban police). Investigation is underway," Prishantha Jayakodi, the police spokesperson and senior superintendent, told reporters. Weliamuna, a leading civil society activist and a lawyer, was at the forefront of a campaign which backed Bandaranayake against the government move to sack her. Lawyers staged country wide protests against the impeachment, calling it an attack against judicial independence. The Lawyers` Collective in a release after Bandaranayake was sacked asserted that she remained the top judge. They claimed that she had been sacked through illegal procedure so termed by the Supreme and Appeal Courts. Bandaranayake in her parting address claimed that she was still the legally appointed chief justice of Sri Lanka. PTI