COLOMBO: The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a left wing nationalist political party, which is aligned with the newly elected Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, filed a petition in the Court of Appeal on Monday seeking the arrest and trial of Kumaran Pathmanathan alias ‘KP’, the LTTE’s chief arms procurer and money launderer, who is currently running a social welfare organisation in North Lanka under the protection of the Sri Lankan army.
The petitioner, JVP MP Vijitha Herath, appealed for a direction to the authorities to state why KP has been given security and allowed to run a Non Government Organisation. Herath also sought Writs of Mandamus to arrest KP and produce him before a court; to investigate the offences he had committed, and to undertake judicial proceedings against him. Herath said that KP had indulged in money laundering, terrorist financing, drug trafficking, and collection of arms with the intention of waging war against the Lankan state. Directly or indirectly he had been responsible for the death of 100,000 Lankans in the 26 year civil war, which had also claimed the lives of 23,327 Lankan Security Forces personnel and 1200 personnel of the Indian Peace Keeping Force., he said.