COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department has refused to allow daily visits by the lawyer of Major General (Retired) Suresh Sallay, the former director of the State Intelligence Service, who is being treated in hospital after a hunger strike in detention, according to a letter from the department obtained by Jaffna Monitor.
In the letter, dated June 13 and signed by Senior Superintendent of Police Shani Abeysekara, the CID director, the agency told Sallay’s wife that her husband’s attorney would be permitted to meet him only on days he is produced before court — not daily, as the family had sought.
The letter responded to a June 12 appeal from Manori Sallay, who had requested regular legal access on the grounds that her husband’s health was failing. Mr. Abeysekara wrote that Ms. Sallay, the couple’s daughter, and their son had already been granted daily access to visit the detainee in hospital to attend to his wellbeing, and that, given his medical condition, daily access for his lawyer could not be permitted “at this time.”
Sallay, 58, was arrested by the CID in Peliyagoda on Feb. 25 over allegations that he aided the April 21, 2019, Easter Sunday bombings, which killed 269 people, and has remained in CID custody under detention orders since. He began a hunger strike in custody, alleging inhumane treatment, and was admitted to the National Hospital of Colombo on the night of June 7 after authorities said his condition deteriorated.
The police have rejected the torture allegations, stating that no assault or cruel treatment had been carried out against the suspect.
