Human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Friday accused the Sri Lankan government of cracking down on the judiciary, a day after ruling party lawmakers moved to impeach the country’s top judge.
President Mahinda Rajapakse’s United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) party submitted a resolution pushing for Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, who has been accused of flouting the constitution, to be sacked.
“The crackdown on dissent has extended to lawyers and members of the judiciary who speak out against abuses of power,” Amnesty said in a statement.
Amnesty also highlighted the case of a high court judge who was attacked and injured by armed assailants last month after he had complained of attempts to interfere with the independence of the judiciary.
Similar concerns about pressure on judges in Sri Lanka were raised by the United States and Germany when the country’s rights record was reviewed at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday.
The US ambassador to the UN mission in Geneva, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, asked Sri Lanka to end interference in the judiciary, “especially in light of... news of the efforts to impeach the chief justice.”